NGIJ Lauds GAPOSA As Rector Highlights Major Developments In The ICT School
The Gateway (ICT) Polytechnic, Saapade, GAPOSA- is an Ogun state own citadel of knowledge that has a distinct mission; to promote ICT as an instrument of mass education. Established in 2006, the Information Communication Technology School provides ICT driven quality education and also empowers the individual to be competent and reasonable citizens who value education as a life-long process. The debate whether the institution lives up to its biddings drives the Nigerian Guild of Investigative Journalists, NGIJ to GAPOSA Campus, Saapade last Wednesday.
Dr Oyeyinka Isiah is the Rector of the institution. He affirms the sterling performance of GAPOSA. “We are trying to match our academic activities with the name we are bearing; ICT Polytechnic. We adopt methods best known in international educational community. We emphasize on practical and that is why we equip our various laboratories with modern gadgets. I’m glad you come to see some of the equipments. We don’t just impact knowledge; we create worthy citizens who could be proud of and at same time are proud of their country.
We want our school to be international standard in times of structures, facilities and education offerings”. Dr. Oyeyinka told members of The Guild.
GAPOSA has got all its courses fully accredited by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) which cut across the National Diploma, Higher National Diploma and Part-Time. Also the institution has deservedly earned the recognition of Federal regulatory agencies like the NBTE, JAMB, WAEC, ITF, and TETFUND. The ICT Polytechnic has a mini campus at Aiyepe Ijebu, Ogun state.
Reiterating the standard of the institution, Dr. Oyeyinka said “ I don’t want to produce computer students that cannot run programmes, I don’t want to produce an engineer that cannot work on computer. I don’t want to produce electrical students that won’t know anything about electronics. An so far so Good, God is helping us in our own ways.
GAPOSA occupies a total land area of about 53 Hectares, situated within Isara, Ipara and Ode from where the name Saapade is coined. “Last week we just introduced about 11 programs in the polytechnic, so we have all our programs accredited and reaccredited. We have qualified teachers. I met 900 students and now it is 5000 students. We have both ND and HND, we have about 23 programs and though I met 9 when I came on board and the number of programs keeps increasing.
A Ph.D. holder in Computer Science, Oyeyinka who was a former senior lecturer in Nigeria’s premier higher institution Yabatech added that “I’m a mathematician and I was a director in Yaba College of Technology before my appointment. I’m a member of Computer Professional of Nigeria. As a computer programmer, I have trained a lot of people who are now a director in different companies.”
The Rector urges the younger generation to pick interest in technical education, noting that it is a sure way out of recurring plague of unemployment. I have always wished to be an engineer when I was young i want to be an engineer, I was very good in separating things and repairing them. I got admission study mathematics wish I did well than other subjects but if you’re a mathematician your work will not be acknowledged. So, I went for computer science to join the idea together.
“All our programs here in GAPOSA today are computer based even to write exam, forms and others. We built it our self. We paid online nob
The Polytechnic has indeed carved a niche for itself, as it has won the following awards among others:
1.Best Instructor Award of CISCO 2008
2.Best Student Award of CISCO in Africa 2009
3.Best Communicating Academy Award 2009
4.Best Success Story Award CISCO 2009
5.Best Communicating Academy Award 2010
6.Best Local Academy Award CISCO 2010
The Rector said GAPOSA trains with books and practical learning. “we have Center for Entrepreneurship Development, there we teach our students how to repair phones and computer, how to write a program. We are opening a Mobile app Center very soon. We are teaching them all this to be an individual person after graduating, no more white color job again, so he who come to this school must be ready to learn.
The Polytechnic which is due for another convocation in a couple of weeks formally turned out its first 2 sets of ND graduates at its 1st Convocation Ceremony held on 5th July, 2010 which was attended by dignitaries from all walks of life, including the Governor of the State, who along with 5 other personalities, was conferred with the Fellowship Award of the Polytechnic. The highlight of the Convocation Ceremony was the pronouncement of the change of the name of the institution from the Gateway Polytechnic, Saapade to Kesington Adebutu (ICT) Polytechnic, Saapade, in honour of Sir Kesington Adebutu, a foremost philanthropist and incidentally, the first Council Chairman of the institution, by the Governor.
Speaking on funding The Polytechnic formally turned out its first 2 sets of ND graduates at its 1st Convocation Ceremony held on 5th July, 2010 which was attended by dignitaries from all walks of life, including the Governor of the State, who along with 5 other personalities, was conferred with the Fellowship Award of the Polytechnic. The highlight of the Convocation Ceremony was the pronouncement of the change of the name of the institution from the Gateway Polytechnic, Saapade to Kesington Adebutu (ICT) Polytechnic, Saapade, in honour of Sir Kesington Adebutu, a foremost philanthropist and incidentally, the first Council Chairman of the institution, by the Governor.
Dr. Oyeyinka said “the government are trying their best to be sincere they gave us big money every month. The governor in particular wants us to think outside box. I sincerely commend Governor Ibikunle Amosu for good work and his contribution towards the greatness of the school… We can’t sit down and want government to give us money every time”.
He added that “no matter how much the government gives us, it cannot be enough, so financial problem is number one challenge facing the school. We need lot resources to build a standard school; the government has tried so far because our money has been very regular every month. And we thank God he gave us success so far”.
“The first challenge I met when I came was that there was not enough students and the school and the institution was not known. When we first came it was very though. In our quest to uplift the financial standard of the school, we made many attempts to have tetfunds but not succeeded. We are still pushing that to FG. The Federal Government gave us about 100 laptops years back and today we have about 300. We have pure water firm, block industry factory on the campus. The Center for Entrepreneurship is coming out with big source of money program., Agricultural development will start producing. We want to train people to be productive”.
The vision of Gateway ICT Polytechnic is to be one of the best in Africa by 2020, especially in the area of academic excellence and skills acquisition. As it applies consistent ingenuity, enterprise and prudence in the Management of its affairs, the institution aims to educate and trains individuals to acquire relevant skills, knowledge, and experience necessary to advance the economic, social and cultural development of Ogun State in particular, Nigeria and the world in general.
To be admitted into GAPOSA is through JAMB for National Diploma, ND and after Industrial Training, IT prospective candidate can pick HND form for his or Higher National diploma, HND. The school fee according to the rector “is very low and fair. And nobody charges students extra money outside school fees”.
STORY BY WALE ABIDEEN
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