Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, Delta State Governor has called for a review of the curricula of tertiary institutions with emphasis on skills acquisition and entrepreneurial leadership development to drive the economic diversification of the country.
Governor Okowa who made the call at the weekend during the 10th convocation ceremony of the Delta State University, Abraka [DELSU] , said that tertiary institutions should focus on raising entrepreneurial leaders, wealth creators and change agents in the society who would drive the much needed economic diversification.
“There is the need for a painstaking review of the curricula of our tertiary institutions with strong emphasis on skill acquisition, not certificate acquisition, and leadership development as against rote learning. A situation where billions of naira is spent by companies and government in retraining graduates from our universities is no longer acceptable”, he said.
He charged universities to carry out researches on the myriad of problems besetting the society for sustainable national growth stating that since government alone could not fund education, tertiary institutions should establish endowment funds to boost researches.
Senator Okowa charged tertiary institutions in the state not to depend wholly on government funding but intensify their internal revenue generation warning that “all internally generated revenues must be properly budgeted and accounted for as it is unrealistic and unacceptable under the new policy thrust of this administration for institutions to generate billions of naira in internal revenue and still expect government to fund all their expectation”.