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From Paul Osuyi, Asaba
Delta State Government on Wednesday advanced reasons for the upgrade of three tertiary institutions to full fledged universities.
Governor Ifeanyi Okowa had on Tuesday forwarded three executive bills to the state House of Assembly, seeking the upgrade of the instructions to degree awarding universities
The institutions include College of Education, Agbor to be upgraded to University of Education; Delta State Polytechnic, Ozoro to be upgraded to University of Science and Technology; and Anwai campus of Delta State University to University of Science and Agriculture.
Addressing journalists in Asaba, Commissioner for Higher Education, Prof. Patrick Muoboghare explained that the proposed upgrade was to reduce cost in the management of the tertiary educational institutions across the state.
Flanked by the Commissioner for Information, Charles Aniagwu, Muoboghare also said the upgrade was create more admission spaces in the university system, adding that it was also an attempt to adopt the policy of the Federal Government to deliberately phase out Higher National Diploma (HND) programme.
He said the overall objective was to harvest quality graduates as dividends from the state government’s investment in education.
“We have decided to establish these three institutions because we want to put our money where we would get dividends. Dividends not by way of money but by way of quality graduates,” Muoboghare said.
He said at present, the state-owned three Colleges of Education in Agbor, Warri and Mosogar has a combined, adding that the monthly wage of the staff strength of 1,893 was N457 million.
“That leaves you with a staff-student ratio of one staff to an average of 1.5 students. To us, that is wasteful expenditure.
“Our children are not too interested in the NCE programme again, we are not going to conscript people to take the programme but the way it is we are spending N457 million monthly on empty lecture halls.
“And we are still building structures there. The alternative is to shut them down but certainly we will not do that. If we upgrade one to a university status, the others would continue to run the normal NCE programme, and the students will have somewhere to aspire to for degree programme,” Muoboghare explained.
On the upgrade of the DELSU campus at Anwai to he proposed University of Science and Agriculture, the Commissioner said the campus at the moment was an eyesore despite being at the state capital, Asaba.
“DELSU sits on three campuses of Abraka, Oleh and Anwai. Unfortunately, the Anwai campus is in the state capital, Asaba. As much as possible I avoid taking my visitors to Anwai campus because it is an eyesore, it is not befitting of a university campus at all.
“Yet the public relations point in any state is the state capital. Having that place there as a campus is unacceptable.
“That is why we decided to upgrade the campus to the University of Agriculture. Ordinarily agriculture does not just stand, it is an applied science.
“So when you put a faculty of agriculture, there is no chemistry, no physics, it is actually waste. Hence a full fledge University of Science and Agriculture,” he said.
