FG Trains Schools’ Staff  On Lab  Equipment Repairs, Maintenance

The Federal Science Equipment Centre (FSEC), Ijanikin, in Lagos State, under the Federal Ministry of Education, says it  has  commenced a two-day  training for  its staff on repairs and programme maintenance of science laboratory equipment.
Staff of the centre would  be deployed to the  110 unity schools across the country  after their training to also train the members of staff of the  schools on  how to repair and maintain science laboratory equipment in their various schools.
The Director of the Centre, Mr Yekini Ismaila, said this  in his address at the opening of a two-day training programme organised for staff of the Centre at  the Federal Polytechnic, Ede, Osun State  recently.
Ismaila said the staff members  from the centre  would be expected to  go round all the unity schools  across the country to train the school officers on repairs and maintenance of their laboratory equipment.
He said the training had been  approved by the  Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Education, Mr Andrew Adejo,  and it is termed ‘train the trainer’.
According to him,    it is to help the Federal Government to maintain existing science laboratory equipment in its unity schools  and cut cost in buying new ones.
According tohim, the centre is currently facing several challenges which had impeded it from reaching its optimal performance, saying that the Permanent Secretary had been briefed about the challenges.
“The FG created the FSEC, through the Federal Ministry of Education in collaboration with  UNESCO and UNDP to enhance the development of science in post-primary institutions,” he said.
He stated that due to dwindling revenue, allocation to the centre had suffered some setbacks and this had  affected the free services  it used to render to unity schools under its purview.
“Most pressing issues in the world today are science based, and a well-managed science experiment centre has the capacity to not only transform a developing economy to a developed one, but also create endless opportunities to generate funds and be self-sufficient,” he said.
He continued that the centre would explore the production and fabrication of standard-science-school equipment, which it would sell at  subsidised  prices to other schools aside unity schools.
Meanwhile,  he has hinted that the centre had also picked  on the production of high quality chalk as  a way of generating revenue in addition to  commercialising its training courses which used to be free before now.