Governor Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru of Ebonyi State says the state will continue to support any move and investment that will expand and consolidate access to education.
He gave the assurance when he received in audience the Vice Chancellor and management team of the National Open University of Nigeria
He maintained that education takes centre stage in the People’s Charter of Needs Agenda, a social contract mantra of his government, expressing willingness to support any state and non state actions geared towards achieving educational goals.
We are willing to support, partner with you to advance knowledge in our dear state”, the Governor said.
“We will give you all the needed support, we are relocating your Study Centre to a bigger and conducive space” to enhance learning and drive research and community service.
While chronicling his milestones in the knowledge sector within the last 3 years, the Ebonyi State Chief Executive noted that his administration is determined to give young Ebonyians the needed exposure for global relevance and competitiveness.
“We have sent over 700 Ebonyians to pursue post graduate degrees in Europe. We did this because we want them exposed to the world”.
The Governor described the Vice Chancellor Prof. Uduma Oji Uduma as a renowned educationist, with a very high known intellectual capacity.
Having had his paths crossed with the University don, the Governor applauded the Governing Council for appointing the Ebonyi born Professor of Logic as Vice Chancellor
“We know what he will do in the National Open University. We are happy that Professor uduma has what it takes to take the University to an enviable height where everyone will be very proud of”.
Calling for State backed actions to end discrimination against graduates of NOUN by their regular universities counterparts, the Governor stated:
“I have had an intellectual encounter with many students of the University, I found out that many of them have what it takes to compete favourably with their counterparts from the regular universities.
“The professionals in this university are not less in quality with their counterparts. If they are not, it means their students are not also inferior”.
Meanwhile, Professor Uduma earlier in his remark, explained that the purpose of the visit is to assure the Governor of his readiness to partner the State in advancing tertiary education.
“I have seen your award of scholarship to various students and how you are building specialised universities.
“The National Open University is the largest university of the South Saharan Africa with a population of over 190,000 students and 128 study Centre and campuses.
“The primary aim of the National Open University is to make education accessible to everyone by removing all forms of barriers”.
In all these the NOUN VC regretted that the Southeast has the least number of campuses and Ebonyi State is the last to have a Study Centre.
“We want to partner Ebonyi State to offer training in Open and Distance Learning, ODL and we are also open to partner the universities here to go dual mode”, that is running a technology blended collegiate system where students can either learn physically on campus or virtually.
