The Managing Director, Kaduna State Media Cooperation (KSMC), Mr. Ibrahim Samaila Ahmad, has agreed to partner with the National Open University of Nigeria's Kaduna Study Centre to enlighten the public on the need to pursue their educational career at the institution.
He made this known when he hosted a high-powered delegation of NOUN, Kaduna Study Centre advocacy campaign team led by its centre director, Dr. Aminu Umar , on a courtesy call on the management of the media corporation office in Kaduna.
Ahmed informed the delegation that they were at the right place and relatively the Kaduna State Media Cooperation would partner NOUN to educate people of the state and beyond.
The Managing Director promised to call on the team to present in some programmes like news and current affairs and others that are educationally related to substantially explain, as there are some certain skepticisms towards the university.
He said the validation of the certificate, quality lecturers, and value were some of the critical areas that need enlightenment.
He explained that as a public broadcaster essentially set and saddled with the responsibility to serve people, by providing avenue for the people to be educated, it is "part of our responsibility to furnish that access."
He added that "Kaduna State Media Cooperation is a public broadcaster that was essentially established despite having commercial orientation, limited its commercial orientation to a certain parentage as to continuelly focus on public aspect."
He maintained that the Kaduna State Government under the leadership of Mallam Nasiru El-rufai is bound to makng the Kaduna State Media Cooperation one of the best not only in this part of the country but in the world.
"Most of the public servants have been discovered with no requisite qualification, therefore the state is making a degree a minimum requirement for the entry in terms of recruitment into it Civil service except in some few instances they may allow diploma from a recognized institution", said Ahmad.
Those that are already in service were given the opportunity to go and update and upgrade their skills, he added.
He congratulated the founding fathers of the university for their foresight for creating and resuscitating the university in particular the former head of state Dr. Olusegun Obasanjo and also for being a student to demonstrate the importance of NOUN.
The director, Kaduna Study Centre, Dr. Aminu Umar, earlier in his speech, extended the profound felicitation of the Vice-chancellor, Prof. Olufemi Peters to the management of the KSMC for accepting and listening to the advocacy team.
He acknowledged that when talking about broadcast media in Northern Nigeria, Kaduna State Media Cooperation is the leading one because it' has a wider coverage.
Therefore, Aminu stated that they find it very important that a strong media house like KSMC, NOUN should not joke with it, as one of the leading Open and Distance Learning University in Africa.
The National Open University of Nigeria was established in 1983, suspended in 1984 and resuscitated by president Olusegun Obasanjo in 2002, he stated.
Therefore, he explained that Since its resuscitation, it has continued to grow from strength to strength and today is the only Open an Distance learning university in Nigeria and the leading Open and Distance Learning institution in Africa.
The admission process is very flexible in the sense that there were no any other requisite requirement like JAMB, post UTME which mostly stand as impediments to students to gain entry into universities. For NOUN, SSCE certificate is key.
National Open University of Nigeria has over one hundred Study Centres across the thirty six states of the Federation with about ninety five Academic programmes including nursing and public health, said Umar.
NOUN being an Information and communication technology-inclined institution, it provide 21st century digital knowledge that suit broadcast media and fit into any Labour force in any part of the world.
He narrated that NOUN is the first and only university in Africa to give free education to inmates in prisons through out the country.
The university has succeeded in part of its community social responsibility to sign a Memorandum of understanding with the Kaduna State Ministry of Health "for our Nursing and Public Health Science Students to effectively use the available health facilities for their practical.
"Despite engaging some media outlets, we find it inadequate without visiting KSMC in Kaduna to let you know that there is a great opportunity for the people of the state and beyond to exploit."
He appealed that one of the key role the university will so much appreciate the house to do is to reach out to the public because the university is grossly under utilised taking into consideration the role education playe in the world.
"A Study has been conducted in the last two years by the university, the Northwest and northeast region of the country are the least enrolled in Nigeria when it come to NOUN, the South East alone triple the enrollment of these two regions together" said Aminu.
"Therefore being a strong partner in enlightening the people in the region we feel it is important that the university link up with you to let you know some of these facts, that the challenges are not only to NOUN also to KSMC," he added.
He further expantiated that the Federal Government has provided the avenue, "but our people are not aware, this should create room for further enlightment especially by your media house."
"A University is established for three main reasons: teaching, research, and community service. So left for the KSMC to chose the area in which the two can partner in order to sell the university," he said.
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