Entrepreneurship: Gombe collaborates with SMEDAN to make education functional
by Jack Tasha
The Government of Gombe State in collaboration with Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency aims at providing skills to the citizens, so as to make education functional and self employment driven.
The Deputy Governor Manassah Daniel Jatau, disclosed this today at the opening of a three-Day Workshop for Teachers under the Mind-Shift SMEDAN School Entrepreneurship Program at the Community Education Resource Centre, Gombe.
The Deputy Governor, who represented the Governor at the occasion said, the fresh move was in view of the fact that paper qualification has failed to impact on our children skills that will make them to be self employed, self reliant and independent.
He said, “Consequently, the labour market is over saturated with unknown number of unemployed graduates, who for very unclear reasons continue to wait for, the ” train that will not come.”
The Deputy Governor further explained that some economies, for instance China has become a leading economy of the world today because of its vibrant small and medium scale enterprises, the same cannot be said of our economy, in spite of the abundance of both human and natural resources the creator has blessed us with.
Jatau further explained that, in their show of concern, SMEDAN in collaboration with the state government have embarked on a paradigm shift that is aimed at providing accesses to functional Entrepreneurship and Community Service education to every primary and secondary school pupil/ student in Gombe State and Nigeria.
He added that, the aim is to reduce poverty level,and idleness with its resultant tendency to engage in undesirable activities in the society, pointing out that the action is highly commendable and laudable.
The Deputy Governor highlighted that their administration is equally concerned with creating employment in the state as he explained that ” The planned establishment of a thousand hectares industrial park at Dadinkowa where all infrastructural services will be provided for investors to come, is a step towards creating employment opportunities to our population. Currently, the Industrial Training Fund( ITF ) has acquired land to set up Skill Acquisition Centre in the state”.
On providing conducive atmosphere for learning, the Deputy Governor expressed desire of their administration to strengthen the education sector by building some Mega Secondary School to be equipped with the state-of-the-art facilities that can admit a minimum of three thousand students.
He called on the participants to take advantage of the opportunity given them by imbibing lessons of the training and as teachers, go and teach others for the success of the program.
The Director- General Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria( SMEDAN) said the program aims at building the capacity of primary and secondary school teachers and arm them with the requisite knowledge they need to inculcate in their pupils and students the passion for entrepreneurship, development and community service, through the formation of competitive entrepreneurship clubs and and establishment of school enterprises.
Represented by Zonal Coordinator, North East SMEDAN, Alh. Mohammed Isa Doguwa, the Director General decried the alarming increase in crime, banditry and restiveness in the country which he said can be easily attributed to increasing rate of unemployment of our youths, due to lack of preparedness to start and successfully run their own businesses.
He said, this phase of the program is, designed to enhance the capacity of the teachers who, will in turn prepare the pupils and students and convert them into Entrepreneurs, stressing that after the training all participating schools are expected to create Entrepreneurship clubs schools enterprises to compete at the national schools Entrepreneurship Competition and Awards Ceremony in Abuja to showcase their innovative businesses and community service projects to a panel of judges who are civic and business leaders.
He explained that the Mind Shift Entrepreneurship Program is driven through two programs of National Schools Entrepreneurship Program , and Tertiary Institutions Entrepreneurship Development Program , targeting primary, Secondary and Tertiary institutions.
According to him, the objectives of the program include, to inculcate the culture of entrepreneurship into the students of young age – catching them young, to involve many business and community leaders each year and, to stimulate and facilitate the culture of entrepreneurship and, community service , with a view to assisting students in exhibiting creativity, and to identify their potentials early enough as well as to, channel the energy of youths to positive and productive ends.
In their separate remarks, the Commissioner of Education Dauda Maaji Batari, and his counterpart of Ministry of Commerce and that of Ministry of Youths appreciated the Governor of Gombe State, and SMEDAN for including Gombe state in the program by providing the avenue for the youths to have access to entrepreneurship training which will shape their future and make them useful and self reliant.
The Chairman Nigeria Union of Teachers, Comrade Ezekiel represented by Deputy Chairman, NUT, Comrade Ali Baba, expressed gratitude to the Governor and SMEDAN for providing the needed conducive environment for teachers and students to be entrepreneurs towards self reliance, urging the Teachers to make good use of the opportunity.
Jack Tasha
Senior Special Assistant (SSA) Media and Publicity
(Deputy Governor’s office)
