By Dayo Adesulu

In a bid to breed upward mobile youths who are Information and Communication Technology complaint (ICT), the Lagos State Polytechnic has put in place a package that would expand the students’ spectrum of knowledge.

This was made known by the Rector of the institution, Mr. Iginla Ayodeji Babatunde during the matriculation ceremony of the 2010/2011 academic session.

Iginla noted that the polytechnic has constructed Digital centers on all its three campuses (Ikorodu, Isolo and Surulere) to facilitate the compulsory computer literacy programme for all students in the Polytechnic, which commenced in the 2009/2010 session.

The need for the introduction of the compulsory computer literacy education programme, according to him, was because computer technology is playing a big role in rebuilding the world by improving communication, economic opportunity, and civic participation and not least of all, education, saying “It makes students more competitive and employable in this increasingly technology and knowledge_driven age.”

He maintained that the current 2010/2011 academic session will, by God’s grace witness the completion of a one storey block of classrooms and offices on Ikorodu campus to ease the shortage of classroom and office accommodation for students and staff respectively.

The Rector disclosed that the state government has already awarded contracts for the construction of the School of Technology complex and a sports complex both on Ikorodu and Isolo campuses adding that when they are completed, adequate learning space would become available while students’ sporting activities would also receive a boost.

Iginla reiterated that irrespective of the fact that in not too distance past, the National Board for Technical Education (i.e, the body responsible for overseeing Polytechnic education in Nigeria) came up with a policy statement that the Federal Government had granted approval for Kaduna Polytechnic and Yaba College of Technology, Lagos to commence degree awarding programmes not long thereafter the approval was withdrawn.

“I’m glad to let you know that the approval has now been restored to the two institutions, although the framework for implementation of the degree awarding programmes is yet to be worked out. With these developments, once these two institutions become degree awarding, LASPOTECH would intensify its ongoing efforts with the state government to also become degree awarding.”