Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri has said his administration focuses on science and technical education in order to produce young people with hands-on skills relevant for employment and job creation.

Diri also stated that his government’s paradigm shift from paper qualification education was in tandem with global trends in education.

The Bayelsa governor spoke yesterday in an interview with the Times Higher Education Magazine on the sidelines of the World Education Forum holding in London, United Kingdom.

He emphasised the primacy of education to be able to build a decent society and to spur socioeconomic growth and development. He said: “What we did when we came on board was moving away from paper qualification towards science and technical education.

Leveraging on science, technical and vocational education strengthens our state in the area of job creation.

“Unemployment is a big issue in Nigeria and you cannot run away from tapping the benefits of science and technology, which is what the whole world is doing now, particularly with the introduction of artificial intelligence.

“My team and I are actually looking at how to introduce it in our curriculum. “So, our strength lies in our ability to sustain what we have started with science and technical education and get our people to key in as opposed to producing young ones without the basic skills for the employment market.”

According to him, education was the key to socioeconomic growth and development. He added: “I’m of the view that if you do not build schools or key into education, the other option is to build prisons as you will have a society full of criminals.

If you do not want to go that route, the key to freeing the mind of the people and for them to contribute to the growth of the society is education.