, Ijanikin in Lagos State , under the Federal Ministry of Education, will train selected staff members from the 110 unity schools on r){kind=link}
The Federal Science Equipment Centre (FSEC), Ijanikin in Lagos State , under the Federal Ministry of Education, will train selected staff members from the 110 unity schools on repairs and maintenance on of science laboratory equipment.
The Director of the Centre, Mr Yekini Ismaila, said this in his address at the opening of a two-day training organised for staff members of the Centre at the Federal Polytechnic, Ede, Osun.
Ismaila said that the staff members that would be trained from across the country would later go round all the unity schools to train the school officers on repairs and maintenance of their laboratory equipment.
He said that the training had been approved by the Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Education, Mr Andrew Adejo, and it is termed ‘train the trainer’.
He added that its aim was to help the Federal Government to maintain its existing science laboratory equipment in its unity schools and cut cost in buying new ones.
He said that the centre was facing several challenges which had been impeding it from reaching its optimal performance and that the Permanent Secretary and the Ministry had been briefed about the challenges.
“The FG created the FSEC, through the Federal Ministry of Education in collaboration with UNESCO and UNDP, to enhance the development of science in post-primary institutions,” he said.
He stated that due to dwindling revenue, allocation to the centre had suffered some setbacks and it had been affecting the free services it used to render to unity schools under its purview.
Ismaila added that it had now become expedient for the centre to assess its funding, find means of generating enough revenues to achieve its mandate, which he said was critical to the development of science in the country.
“Most pressing issues in the world today are science based and a well-managed science experiment centre has the capacity to, not only transform a developing economy to a developed one, but create endless opportunities to generate funds and be self-sufficient,” he said.
He said that the centre would explore the production and the fabrication of standard-science-school equipment, which it would sell at subsidised prices to other schools aside unity schools.
He said that the centre had also picked on the production of high quality chalk as a way of generating revenue in addition to commercialising its training courses which used to be free before now. (NAN)