Wife of the Former Governor of Ogun State, Mrs. Olufunso Amosun at the Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro in Ogun State on the 9th of October, 2012, expressed her desire for equal access to education, training, science and technology for women and the girl-child as this would go a long way in empowering them and assist in the elimination of discrimination and promote the eradication of poverty.
She stated this during the 6th National Conference of Women in Technical Education and Empowerment with the theme: “Enhancing Female Education and Employment in Science and Technology for Sustained National Transformation.”
The wife of the former governor noted that the conference was a unique opportunity to re-examine our commitment towards the improvement o f women’ s participation in technical, vocational and professional education, stressing the need to help women acquire business, trade, information and entrepreneurship skill and to address the different setbacks facing women.
She added that efforts should be intensified to respond to women’s clarion call in areas of research, development and scientific technology and to encourage children, most especially the girl-child, to show more interest in science and technology related subjects to enhance sustainable national development.
Mrs. Amosun called on members of WITED to come up with programmes of action that would create education and training opportunities for women, saying their contributions to all fields of education and training had become more obvious hence the need to celebrate and encourage them to do more.
She presented prizes and certificates to excelling female students in secondary, science subjects and asked the organizers of the event to identify the overall best student of the competition for upward
sponsorship at the state level to motivate them to do more.
In his address, the National Coordinator, Women in Technical Education and Employment (WITED), Engineer Francis Osiki submitted that the main o b j e c t i v e o f t h e conference was to identify problems confronting women in the areas of science and technology and to tackle them headlong to achieve a meaningful and realistic sustainable transformation.
He commended women for getting more involved in science related fields, describing science and technology as a veritable tool for achieving national development which would enhance the socio- economic growth of any developing nation.
Also speaking, the Rector, Federal Polytechnic Ilaro, Dr. R. A. Oloyo added that national transformation could never be achieved without paying due attention to the basic human needs and social requirements, noting that the conference would lead people particularly women to develop 21st Century skills and make them acquire values for good citizenship.
Oloyo called on Nigerian youths to be awakened to the reality and importance of vocational and technical education, saying it was only through this, that the problems of unemployment among the youth and poverty among adults could be reduced.
