No fewer than 590 members of staff of the Federal Polytechnic, Nekede (PolyNekede), Owerri, Imo State, have been offered approval for training at various levels of education from Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D), post-Doctoral, Masters of Sciences (M.Sc) to others.
In the last three years, PolyNekede has partnered Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to train its staffers at a whopping cost of N1.64b.
The Rector, Dr. Michael C. Arimanma, disclosed this during activities to mark his third year office in Nekede.
Arimanma said while TETFund injected N549m, the polytechnic authorities spent N250m on various training programmes.
He said TETFund gave N265m as research grants to 65 members of staff, adding that the joint effort has resulted in the construction of 38 ongoing projects, as well as improvement from 17th position to sixth position on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Index.
The event was attended by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), (Academic), Prof. Godfrey Nwadikom; the 14th Governing Council Chairman of the institution, Chief Charles Chukwudum Amilo; monarch of Umudibia Autonomous Community, Owerri West Local Council and Eze Godwin Onyewuchi, among others.
Arimanma said the breakdown of recipients showed 47 persons were sponsored by TETFund read for Ph.D, while four were offered opportunities to read overseas.
Also, 19 benefitted in Masters’ degree programme within Nigeria, while four offered to undergo M.Sc degree outside the country; and two for post-Doctoral courses in the United States.
He disclosed that 480 international conferences, workshops and seminars were organised within the period under review by the institutional sponsorship to expose the staff on the latest issues surrounding academic matters.
He regretted that paucity of funds; smooth deployment of technology and others, hindered the progress. He promised to engineer more progressive projects.
GUARDIAN
