A 15-man Gown & Town committee of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Oka-Akoko Community Study Centre, has been inaugurated on Monday, December 12, 2022.
The event was held at the Auditorium of the study centre with the dignitaries at the event, including the HRM Oba Yusuf Adebori Adeleye, the Olubaka of Oka, Paramount ruler of Oakland.
He is the first Chancellor of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, The Asiwaju of Oakland Basorun Seinde Arogbofa (OFR), the Oka Council of Chiefs, Staff of the Study Centre and other dignitaries.
In his welcome address, the Study Centre Director, Dr. Joseph Babajide Oyadeyi congratulated the entire Akokoland for the presence of the University in their region.
Oyadeyi expressed his gratitude to God and the management of the NOUN under the able leadership of the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Olufemi Peters for appointing him as the pioneer Director of the Centre.
He explained that the Study Centre has been collaborating with the Community since its inception for academic activities and the event marked a more formal approach to such collaboration.
The Director seized the opportunity to sensitize the gathering that the National Open University of Nigeria is the only accredited single-mode Open and Distance Learning (ODL) institution in Nigeria and is open to all who seek to add value to themselves.
The director also explained to his audience that a study centre is a mini Campus of the University that operates at different locations across the country, he added that Community Study Centres are established at the request of Communities.
He said"communities who wish to have Study Centres is not without a cost as the host Community has huge responsibilities at hand to ensure the smooth running of the Centre, including provision and maintenance of infrastructural facilities, sponsorship of programs and activities, sponsorship of community members to the university, advocacy, and community sensitization.
He added that for a Community Study Centre to operate seamlessly and adequately fulfill its purpose, needs for collaborating with the host Community in a symbiotic relationship.
He, therefore, urged the listener to have a positive view of the University, he said"this is yours and our University, it is our baby and we must nourish it together, community Study Centre is a unique Study Centre that was gotten on a platter of gold" he stated.
The director highlighted some of the functions of the Committee as an Advisory Committee shall be a forum for collaboration between the Study Centre and the Community on mutually relevant issues including, but not limited to, capital projects; infrastructure planning; advocacy, community engagement; safety; and security.
The Committee is expected to advise and make recommendations to the Study Centre Management and the Community from time to time. The Committee shall discuss a wide variety of relevant issues and works to find solutions to problems that may arise.
The committee shall play an important role in information sharing and building cordial and cooperative working relationships between the Study Centre and the Akoko Community.he added.
He further informed the gathering that the Study Centre has successfully conducted its first Pen-On-Paper examination and that the E-examination is currently ongoing.
He added that the advocacy train of the Centre had reached some communities and a large number of residents of Akokoland where traditional rulers, chiefs, churches, mosques, community leaders, youths groups, etc were sensitized.
He said that student enrolment as of October 2022 was 81 and that the Centre had been able to attract students from the four Local Government Areas in Akokoland, some Local Governments outside Akokoland, and two states outside Ondo State.
He appealed to illustrious sons and daughters of Oakland, groups, and associations in Oakland to sponsor indigent members of the Community who are ready to seek and acquire knowledge from our University as many of them are willing to enroll in programs but are financially handicapped.
He also laid the various challenges of the Centre which include completion of the perimeter fence, water, energizing the transformer in the Centre for electricity supply, computers, equipping the e-E-Learning Centre, Signposts, leaking roofs, need for flood and erosion control, utility van, public address system, window blinds, projector, etc.
He also informed the gathering that the Centre plans to organize Annual Lectures, and outreaches to secondary schools, and market women, youths, farmers, and artisans in the future.
He appreciated the project committee of the community for the construction of the entrance road to the Centre, procurement of a router, an HP Laptop, HPPrinter, a 3-in-1 Kyocera Printer, and payment of junior staff stipends. He expressed his gratitude to General (Dr) Jones Arogbofa and Mr. Charles Olorunda who donated a petrol generator, fan, sprayer, and herbicides worth five hundred thousand nairas (N500,000.00) to the Centre.
He extended his gratitude to all members of staff for their hard work and dedication to duty.
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