Oyo State Government and the Technical University (Tech-U), Ibadan, have initiated a partnership that will see the outside community benefiting from some of the institution’s technological facilities.
Some of the facilities are the varsity’s high-capacity server, biometric machines and its entrepreneurship and vocational centre located at Ajoda.
This is one of the highlights of an official visit of the Commissioner for Education and Technology, Prof. Daud Sangodoyin. He visited the university last Thursday.
Sangodoyin, who also studied Computer Science, was received by the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ayobami Salami and other principal officers that included the Registrar, Mrs. Olayinka Balogun and the Bursar, Mr. Kehinde Olatokun.
Sangodoyin was conducted round facilities on the main campus on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, hostel and the varsity’s Academy (primary and secondary schools) as well as the entrepreneurship and vocational centre at Ajoda, on Ibadan-Ife road.
With other government officials, including the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Mrs. Aminat Atere, in his entourage, he commended the varsity management for introducing the biometric machine for students and staff attendance monitoring, saying the government would work with Tech-U in effecting same in its public schools.
The VC welcomed the idea and said Tech-U was prepared for the engagement.
“The biometric machine has been very effective in this university. Apart from heling to monitor students’ attendance in classes, it also serves as the staff register, attendance and punctuality monitoring. We all know what people do with the traditional handwritten attendance method. You can write for me, I can sign for you. But this wonderful machine helps us to eliminate that. It is, of course, also helping us to impart in our students a sense of punctuality and responsibility,” Prof. Salami said.
The commissioner, who tested the machine to ensure its viability, also said: “This is good, and we will like to introduce it to our schools too. The educational system in Oyo State is going through a lot of reformation and improvement. We will also like to monitor our teachers and students accordingly. It is good that, as the VC said, if you are not registered, if you press the machine it won’t pick your finger.”
He applauded the management for the functionality of its smart boards and the capacity of its server which, according to the Head of the Information and Communications Technology, Mr. Emmanuel Olorunnisola, has the highest capacity among those of other universities in Nigeria.
“It is the best in terms of capacity, performance, speed and space,” Olorunnisola said, adding that it could power between 20 and 25,000 computers at a time.
On this, the commissioner said Oyo State would be glad to make Tech-U a training and a CBT centre.
The commissioner also visited the faculties of Engineering and Technology; Natural and Applied Sciences and Language Studies, with deans such as Professors Olufemi Koya, Olajide Oke and Suraju Ajadi hosting him.
He was also at the Central Workshop/Laboratory nearing completion, where he engaged the engineers and supervisors on standards and completion schedule; newly completed hostels as well as the institution’s farms.
Sangodoyin interacted with students inside one of the lecture theatres, where he described the university’s anthem, as sung by the students, as one of the best he had ever listened to.
