LASU-ACEITSE lauded for sustaining academic research despite COVID-19 lockdown

THE Lagos State University Africa Centre of Excellence for Innovative and Transformative STEM Education (LASU-ACEITSE) has been commended for sustaining unbroken academic and research activities using virtual mode with its students, despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

National coordinator of the World Bank ACE Projects in Nigeria and a director at the National Universities Commission, Dr Joshua Attah, gave the commendation during the virtual inauguration of the board of the centre last week.

Dr Attah said the newly inaugurated members of the centre, a World Bank-funded project, were carefully selected and approved by the global bank due to their sterling qualities.

Earlier, the vice chancellor of LASU, Professor Olanrewaju Fagbohun, while inaugurating the 11-member board (comprising seven males and four females) from Africa, Europe and America, said the centre had really done well, especially by bringing high profile scholars and personalities across the globe to teach and interract with the students.

He said the effects of such, especially in the long run, would be unquantifiable in the education and socio-economic spheres of the country and beyond.

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Fagbohun said he believed the board members would bring their exposure, expertise and experience, especially in the fields of STEM, ICT, entrepreneurship and contributions to humanity, to bear in moving the centre forward.

“We are lucky to have you and we will definitely leverage on your partnership,” he added.

On his part, the director of the centre and former executive secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof Peter Okebukola, emphasized that the goal of the centre is to produce high-quality manpower and researches at masters and PhD levels to help drive African economies and that of the world by extension.

He said the board would certainly enhance the quality of scholarship and position the centre well in discharging its mandates.

The board members, made up of career diplomats, accomplished entrepreneurs, science and curriculum studies experts, researchers, administrators and policy analysts, include Professors Sola Adesope (USA), Hortense Taky Atta Diallo (Cote d’Ivoire), Jophus Mensah (Ghana), Alejandro Gallard (USA), and Goski Alabi (Ghana).

Others are Ratana Chuenpagdee (Canada), Sahr Gbamanja (Sierra Leone), William Kyle, Jr (USA), Juma Shabani (Burundi), Uchenna Nzewi and Ambassador Adebola Labiran from Nigeria.

Responding on behalf of the board, Professor Hortense Diallo from Cote d’Ivoire thanked LASU for the appointment and promised to live up to expectation.

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