Emelam Udo, Umuahia.
Christopher Okoro, the Rector of Ogbonnaya Onu Polytechnic, Aba (formerly Abia State Polytechnic) has revealed that the Management of the Institution has outlawed the sale of handouts to stop exploitation of students.
Okoro, disclosed this when the new Executive of the Correspondents Chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, (NUJ) Abia State Council paid him a courtesy visit in his office.
He further hinted that the management had equally abolished the issuance of statement of results to make things easy for students.
“Students are no longer compelled to buy textbooks. Those things were things of the past. Sale of handouts is outlawed”,
“We have digitalised the processes to ensure things are done the right way. We have abolished the issuance of Statement of Results”Okoro stated.
On why the the action became imperative, he queried:”How will a student finish up after five years and you give the person paper and call it Statement of Results? And then the person will carry it, probably pay for the clearance; and come back after years for certificates and you still collect money again from the same person, and start looking for the files again? I said no!
“Upon graduation, students should be given certificates. And these certificates have QR codes. So, they are verifiable anywhere. Once an employer scans this QR code, it directs to Registrar and Rector. The holder’s name will appear. We will reply whether or not the person is our product”.
The Rector also said that the management had made it easy for students to obtain their results without passing through the lecturers to avoid exploitation.
“Once exam is over, all results must be uploaded six weeks after examination. Four weeks for those of them in finals, and six weeks for the rest. So, students don’t need to go and meet the lecturer”he said.
Okoro further stated that the welfare of staff “is treated as priority”, revealing that 36-months of salary arrears accumulated by previous administrations had been cleared.
” We are not just student-centered, we are also staff centered. Our staff members have been taken care of. All their arrears of salaries have been cleared.
“We came on board having 36 months’ salary arrears but the Governor has supported us to clear these arrears as we no longer owe anybody on the campus.
“Not just that, he has also ensured that staff members who were not promoted since 2008-2012 have been promoted up to 2022. And then we have started the second phase of promotion that will take us to 2025. It therefore means that His Excellency has paid the debt he did not owe.”the Rector stated.
He equally revealed that the institution which was deregistered by the National Board for Technical Education, (NBTE) about three years ago, had gained full accreditation for all its 33 programmes with additional 17 new programmes.
“All the programmes here have been accredited. NBTE also granted approval for 17 new programmes”Okoro said.
He identified some of the new programmes as Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Mechatronics Engineering and Fashion Design Technology, among others.
“We have Leather Technology as a new programme. We have Fashion Design Technology as a new programme. Aba is known for fashion and design. So there is no way we can have Aba and not have fashion and leather.
“This Polytechnic is the first in the whole Southern Nigeria to have Leather Technology as a Department. This institution is also the first Polytechnic in Nigeria to have Artificial Intelligence as a department. We know the times and we will work ahead of others.”
Okoro while attributing the institution’s success stories to “massive support from Gov. Alex Otti, he said Otti’s leadership “is a leadership that thinks not just for the now but for the future.”
He thanked the Governor for awarding the construction of internal roads on the campus including its permanent site at Osisioma.
