By Citizenship Daily
The Deputy Senate President (DSP), Barau Jibrin has sponsored another batch of 70 indigenous students to study for their Masters Degree programmes in India.
Barau, who bidded farewell to the beneficiaries at Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano on Sunday, explained that the students would study Artificial Intelligence, AI and Machine Learning, Information Security & Cyber Forensic and Robotics Science in reputable institutions of higher learning in India.
Speaking after the departure of the students, jibrin, Senator representing Kano North, said the world is fast changing into knowledge-based economy, hence the need to shift attention to the special courses that will develop the knowledge of the students to compete favourably.
“The world has changed. Knowledge is key. Take for instance, Taiwan has nothing but they have people who are knowledgeable. So the world is fast changing to knowledge based economy.
“And that is why we shifted our attention to send our students abroad to study special courses such as Artificial Intelligence, AI and Machine Learning, Information Security & Cyber Forensic and Robotics Science in reputable institutions of higher learning abroad. This is to expose them to best global educational standards in these fields.
“We have youths education, which is an asset to us, but the problem is that they are not well educated. I feel that the number one solution to our problem is educating our youths.
“We understand the importance of human capital is key to the development of every nation. So in this regard, I feel that the first thing to do is to begin to help give precedence to what president Bola Ahmad Tinubu is doing in terms of giving access to the indigenous students who do not have the wherewithal to be trained educationally.
“You know that there are different types of policies like the Students Loan Scheme which is helping our youths as you can see.
“So the fact is that, the issue of education anywhere in the world is not shouldered on the government alone, is an all inclusive kind of effort.
“That is why I decided on my own to begin this education initiative to sponsor our students who do not have the wherewithal to get trained, especially in areas that are really needed in our contemporary world.
“Areas like Artificial Intelligence, Forensic Science, Software engineer and so on and so forth.
“So I decided to identify these students from different parts of the state so that they can go and further their education” he said.
He added that his thinking is that they will not come back and be looking for jobs but will be self employed. For this reason, the initiative extends to making them self employed and becoming employers of labour in these fields that are now in vogue across the world.
“I will continue to identify and sponsor qualified students of the state origin for Masters degrees, irrespective of their economic, social status or political inclinations.
“I don’t know any of them; they were selected based on merit and not any other consideration, whether political, social or economic,” he said.
Earlier, the Chief of Staff to the Deputy Senate President, Prof. Muhammad Ibn Abdullahi said the students were drawn from across the state to travel to India to study Robotics and Artificial intelligence, AI among others.
This is the second time the Deputy Senate President is sponsoring Kano indigenes to study abroad. He had recently sent the first batch to India.
