AN arrangement has been concluded to make Computer-Based Test (CBT) a compulsory component of admission and matriculation examinations into tertiary institutions with effect from next year, according to the Federal Government.
The scheme is to ensure that the nation's youths take Information Communications Technology (ICT) seriously. Also, the National Universities Commission (NUC) at the weekend pledged to assist the Apostolic Church-owned Samuel Adegboyega University, Ogwa, in Esan West Local Council of Edo State.
The Executive Secretary of the Commission, Prof. Julius Okojie, stated this at the foundation-laying ceremony of the Centre for Research and Development of Esanland (CERDEL) at the university, where he announced a donation of N6 million on behalf of the commission and a personal commitment of N4 million to the building of the centre.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufa'i, spoke at the weekend at the 20th convocation of the Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi, in Edo State, where the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, commended the women at the helm of affairs of the polytechnic and three others in Nekede, Imo State, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, and Yaba in Lagos State, saying that they had shown that they could perform "efficiently and effectively" like their male counterparts.
Mrs. Jonathan, who was represented by the Minister of Women Affairs, Hajia Zainab Maina, at the ceremony where she was conferred with an honourary fellowship by the Auchi Polytechnic, promised to use her Women for Change and Development programme to assist the female heads of the tertiary institutions to excel.
On her part, the Rector of the Polytechnic, Dr. (Mrs.) Philipa Idogho, said the school was being positioned under her administration to maintain its status as the best polytechnic and second best tertiary institution in Nigeria by the latest Webometrica report ranking universities in the world.
Speaking through the Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Maasu'd Kazaure, who represented Rufa'i, said in her address at the convocation ceremony, where elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark, was also honoured, that the growing number of graduate-unemployment in the country led to government to mandate all tertiary institutions to introduce entrepreneurial education in their programmes to develop skills that would make graduates depend less on paid employment.
