‘Improved, accessible tertiary education will aid progress on SDGs’

The Chancellor of Southwestern University, Okun Owa, Ogun State, Engineer Babatunde Odufuwa, has said improved and accessible tertiary education and effective national innovations systems will help a developing country make progress in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

He also noted that the capacity for countries to adopt, disseminate and maximize rapid technological advances is dependent on adequate systems of tertiary education.

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Odufuwa was speaking at the convocation ceremony of the university.

He said practicable knowledge and skills were important to the development of the nation and education growth.

“Knowledge and advanced skills are critical determinants of a country’s economic growth and standard of living as learning outcomes are transformed into goods and services, greater institutional capacity, a more effective public sector, a stronger civil society, and a better investment climate.”

Odufuwa, who called for more investment in education said, education is a right and not an obligation and a crucial vehicle for shaping human potentials for productive ends.

“It is a major prime mover of any society desirous of development and growth.”

He said Nigeria would remain dormant unless her human resources were adequately developed and utilised to exploit and fabricate the non-human resources into consumable articles.

The chancellor, who congratulated the graduates for their academic feat, urged them to uphold ethical conduct in their business dealings in the labour market.

The Acting Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Babatunde Odesanya, while urging the graduands to be agents of impact to the society, noted that all academic programmes of the institution were fully accredited by the National Universities Commission, adding that plans were underway to establish new faculties and programmes in the school to promote learning.

In his convocation lecture, the Head, Department of Accounting, University of Benin and Chairman, Governing Council of the institution, Prof. Famous Izedonmi said: “Education is a weapon for meaningful change, revolution and orientation.

“The level of development in most developing nations and countries of the world is largely attributed to education. Hence educating the masses should be the paramount concern of those in leadership.”

At the convocation ceremony, 250 students were conferred with bachelor’s degrees from the Faculty of Social and Management Science and Faculty of Pure and Applied Science for the 2020/2021 academic session.