The Association of Professional women engineers of Nigeria (APWEN) commenced their 2019 national conference on Tuesday, 24th of September in Asaba, Delta state. Its theme is – The dynamics of environmental change, impact on engineering.
As part of the event, the Association led by the President of Nigerian Society of Engineers, Engr Adekunle Mokuolu paid courtesy visit to the governor of the state, Dr Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa on the opening day. Along with the governor ,the Deputy Governor, and his wife Engr, Mrs Ebieri Otuaro.
The visiting team also included the president NSE, Engr. Adekunle Mokuolu, the deputy president, Engr Babagana Muhammed, APWEN president, Engr Dr. Felicia Agubata, Deputy Governor, Engr, Mrs Ebieri Otuaro and a host of others.
APWEN presented to him and his deputy the Inspirational leadership award; the governor received this with gratitude. He appreciated the association for their good works and pledged his support.
In the speech the Governor, Sen. (Dr) Ifeanyi Okowa,spoke of the need to “ensure that more girl-children embrace the sciences and the competitive side of study.”“The more science-based courses we embrace, the more entrepreneurial skills that we can grow to check unemployment because unemployment makes it difficult to check insecurity.” he continued.
He emphasized that at primary and secondary school levels children should be given good education to lay a solid foundation for their future endeavours, adding that the government had given attention to the recruitment of teachers. He urged parents to motivate their girl-child to embrace STEM courses. he said that the science based courses offer greater chance of job opportunities.
“The more science-based courses we embrace, the more entrepreneurial skills that we can grow to check unemployment because unemployment makes it difficult to check insecurity.”
Speaking on the State efforts in that direction, he said: “In Delta, we recently carried out employment of teachers with 90 per cent of them in the sciences, because we are emphasizing merit in the employment to ensure that we lay solid foundation for our children at primary and secondary levels.
“We are also doing a lot in technical education, because we believe that people can acquire skills in a secondary school system that is technologically-based.
“We have revamped six technical colleges and we promised to construct 19 more before the end of my tenure,” Okowa said.
The governor, who was presented with an award by APWEN for being an “Inspirational Leader in Job Creation, Education, and Infrastructure Development”, commended the Association efforts at driving more girl-child to student science based course, saying, “your advocacy for the girl-child is encouraging.
He commended APWEN for choosing Asaba for its National Conference and urged members to increase their commitment to creating more awareness for the girl-child in science education.
Earlier, Engr Agubata, in her address informed the governor that they were in Delta for the Association National Conference and Annual General Meeting. She said APWEN was spurred to present the award to him based on the giant strides recorded by his administration in road construction, airport, education, job creation and others.
Agubata commended the wife of the Deputy Governor, Engr, Mrs Ebieri Otuaro, an engineer, for her commitment to the growth to engineering profession.
Report by Mariam Haruna Source: MYEngineers
