Answering a question put across to him by the Editor-In-Chief of The Story, an Online Newspaper, during a Post Exco briefing, the Commissioner for Higher Education, Prof. Patrick Muoboghare, on Thursday 25th February 2021, disclosed that the matter was raised at the Exco meeting held on same date.
Flanked by his Information counterpart, Mr. Charles Aniagwu and the Senior Policy Adviser to the governor, Prof. Sylvester Monye, the Higher Education Commissioner revealed that the state governor was expecting a memo from the ministry with a view to properly place the school where it belongs.
Hear him: “Well, the governor is about meeting you midway on the question. At Exco today, that matter came up.
“And he is expecting the memo from the ministry of Higher Education with a view to placing the school of Marine Technology Burutu, where it properly belongs
“I am sure that the next Exco meeting, there will be a decision one way or the other”, he assured.
The Ijaws through an educationist and Human Rights activist, Comrade Sheriff Mulade, has asked the State governor and the Speaker, Delta State House of Assembly (DTHA), to transfer the school from the ministry of transportation to Higher Education for efficacy.
It would be recall that a Delta-born educationist and human rights advocate, Comrade (Chief) Mulade Sheriff has written to the Delta State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa to transfer the School of Marine Technology, Burutu, from the State Ministry of Transport to the Ministry of Higher Education, to enable the institution function effectively and optimally.
Chief Mulade, a Peace Ambassador who doubles as the President of the Riverine Communities Development Forum of Nigeria, made this known to journalists in Abuja at the weekend.
He stressed that the transfer of the School to the Higher Education Ministry would attract academics and professionals to run and manage the institution for the betterment of students and Deltans in general.
The rights activist noted that the School of Marine Technology, Burutu, had been attached to the Ministry of Transport, indicating that it was meant to train the youths in crash programmes only, instead of a full fledged degree and diploma courses such as those in the universities and polytechnics respectively.
According to Mulade, in tertiary education, a professional certificate is quite different from an academic certificate, appealing to, and requested that Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa to transfer the School of Marine Technology, Burutu, to the Ministry of Higher Education so that academic experts could run and manage it towards achieving set goals.
He also called on the Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly (DTHA), Rt. Hon. Chief Sheriff Oborevwori and his colleagues to amend the Act that established the School of Marine Technology, and transfer it to the State Ministry of Higher Education, to enable it achieve the purpose for which it was established.
