Over 2,065 students graduated from the Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology, Igboora, with higher and national diplomas in various agriculture and technology programmes on Thursday.
Provost of the College, Prof. Gbemiga Adewale, speaking at the maiden convocation and 10th Founders Day celebration of the institution, said that, of the 2,065, 126 graduated with distinction, 606 with Upper Credit, 751 with Lower Credit and 405 with Pass.
He said 1,888 bagged National Diplomas while 177 of the graduands bagged their Higher National Diplomas.
The maiden convocation covers seven sets of graduands including the 2009/2010, 2010/2011, 2011/2012, 2012/2013, 2013/2014, 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 sets.
The institution, formerly referred to as Oyo State College of Agriculture, Igboora, was established in August, 2006 as a monotechnic but got its new nomenclature, OYSCATECH as a polytechnic after passing the accreditation process of the National Board for Technical Education(NBTE) in 2014.
“In our school, we focus on three essentials, namely training, research and extension. Our graduands are trained agents of food sufficiency and they are to be self employed.
“The training in our college is a sort of empowerment initiative and capacity building for self reliance after graduation,” the Provost said.
He stated that the institution had undertaken several projects with international agencies, institutions and was presently a stakeholder in the ongoing Agriculture Initiative of the Oyo State Government.
Adewale appealed to the federal government to re-introduce a reformed or improved farm settlement scheme and get the youth involved because they were amenable to latest innovations.
He added that the nation could be food sufficient if government encouraged youths, saying that a lot of programmes had failed because youths were not involved.
He also commended Governor Abiola Ajimobi and the host communities for their support for the institution.
