NOTAP, RMRDC Give Grants to 10 FCT Secondary Schools

 

The schools that were given the grant are the Vocational Enterprise Institutes at Kuje, Karshi, Gwagwalada, Bwarri, Abaji, and Kwalli, and the Government Secondary schools at Garki, Nyanya, Dutse and Karu.

Dr Umar Bindir, Director-General, NOTAP, said the grants were part of the agencies' collective resolution to popularise and promote innovations in secondary schools.

Bindir said that the grants were also part of NOTAP's plan in anchoring the African Day for Technology and Intellectual Property on the continent that was being celebrated every Sept. 13.

He said the grant would serve the purpose of unleashing creativity, inventiveness and innovations in students.

He told newsmen that the N4 million was an equal joint contribution by NOTAP and RMRDC.

According to him, NOTAP would work closely with the education boards to ensure that the grants were used judiciously to further spur the students' creative thinking for national development.

Prof. Peter Onwualu, Director-General RMRDC, said that there was need to bridge the gap in technological innovation in the youth.

He pointed out that education should be balanced with handsome experiences in technological advancement.

"The new generation of youth should be able to have a well built educational capacity with high level of skills and experiences."

Onwualu, said that the grants were to help students develop technological designs and fabricate machines that would aid national development.

"It is also geared toward attaining highly developed graduates, who should be able to design and develop machines."

He encouraged youths and principals to tap into projects that were highly resourceful, especially through the raw materials.

``When the youth grow with a more mindful science and technology will, it would be easier for our economy to be a knowledge based economy in the long run."

According to him,the minister for science and technology, was planning a world based cluster project aimed at harnessing the recent technology in all research institutes in Nigeria.

He said the idea was to inject the discovered technologies into the production of goods and services especially in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).