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Akwa Ibom State government has lauded the management of Engineering Automation Technology Limited (EATECH) for investing over N35million in the rehabilitation and equipment of Biology and Chemistry laboratories of St. Mary’s Senior Science College, Ediene-Abak.
Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Idongesit Etiebet, who stated this at the inauguration of the laboratories in Abak, at the weekend, tasked other corporate organisations doing business in the state to partner the government in boosting the infrastructure and quality of teaching and learning in the state.
Etiebet, represented by Mrs. Roseline Anthony Mfon, Director, State Education Assurance Service, said education should be seen as a joint venture between public and private sector and assured that the state would welcome any private sector firm wiling to assist upgrade infrastructure in its public schools.
She said government should not be allowed as sole financiers of public schools.
“We are very grateful for what EATECH has done in this science college and we are charging the teachers to use these laboratories to bring out the best in the students. Akwa Ibom State government is ever ready to partner with the private sector in improving the quality of its education sector. We are open, welcoming to anyone who wants to assist us so that those who attend public schools are not seen to be disadvantaged,” she said.
Managing Director/CEO of EATECH, Dr. Emmanuel Okon, while handing over the laboratories to the school, said the investment of was part of the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). He recalled visiting the two laboratories of the foremost science college and finding them dilapidated, abandoned and overtaken by weeds and rodents.
Okon also lamented the rot in key infrastructure in public schools across the state, urging the government to partner private sector investors to boost the quality of infrastructure and manpower in its public schools.
He particularly flayed the situation were science students have to be shuffled through schools without the requisite laboratories for their practicals to bring them at par with their contemporaries around the world.
“I graduated from the school more than 33 years ago, but during a visit two years ago, I was shocked that the foremost science college that has produced great alumni making waves within and outside the country was without functioning biology and chemistry laboratories. Given the role of science and technology in shaping today’s global economy, businesses and even politics, it is tragic for the present and posterity of this state and indeed the country, to shuffle students through this school without the requisite laboratories for teachers and students to explore, experiment, innovate, make mistakes, learn and grow at the same competitive level as their peers around the world.
“This intervention in the most modern laboratories that could be found anywhere in the world cost us about N35million and it is our little contribution, as part of our corporate social responsibility (CSR), in closing this infrastructure gap in this school and creating the right teaching and learning environment for teachers and students,” he said.
Okon tasked the principal and students to make good use of the facilities and also ensure their proper maintenance.
