Obaseki’s education reform: Contractor intensifies work on Benin Technical College revamp

…hires 12 school leavers

Work on the revamp of the Government Science and Technical College (GSTC), formerly Benin Technical College, has reached advanced stage as the contractor handling the project pushes to deliver the project on schedule.

Mr. Giles Omezi, Programme Lead Consultant for the Government Science and Technical College (GSTC) Benin Rehabilitation Programme, told journalists in Benin City, that the classroom buildings inside the GSTC would be completed soon.

“We are delivering the two buildings in this phase to help the students get out of the old building and learn in a more conducive atmosphere. The next phase is for us to look at the existing college buildings and refurbish them because we have evaluated that it is cheaper to refurbish than to build new ones.

“We are going to rehabilitate the workshops and some of the workshops will be managed by the private sector; we want our training workshops to be productive and we want the students to learn in a decent environment,” he said, during an inspection tour of the college.

He explained that the two classroom blocks and staff room being built consist of about 24 rooms and would be ready for use before the end of the year.

Omezi added that 12 graduates of the college were employed to work with the project team, in line with the Governor Godwin Obaseki-led government’s high premium on technical and vocation education.

“The aim of this administration is to catch them young, equip them with skills and link them to job opportunities so that they can live meaningful lives and impact the society positively.

“We have an initiative called the Local Employment and Content Framework where we are encouraging beneficiaries of capital expenditure in the state to source for materials locally and employ workers from the state.

“The graduate employees would resume work on the construction site in the college on Sept. 10 and we hope that they will gain experience and their career will become more tangible.

He noted that Master Elijah Ikponmwen, a 19-year old graduate of the college who is among the graduate employees has been made a brand ambassador for the GSTC Rehabilitation Programme.

“We discovered Elijah last year when we commenced the GSTC rehabilitation programme in the college. He was in his final year then and we followed him up. He is inspiring and has the ambition to go further and become a civil engineering,” the consultant said.