The Nation Newspaper

Tag: College of Education

  • Jonathan’s attitude to Poly, Colleges of Education worrisome, says COEASU

    President Goodluck Jonathan came under fire on Thursday over the running of the education system in the country.
    Colleges of Academic Staff Union (COEASU) accused Jonathan of operating an elitist government by ignoring the masses in its educational drive.
    COEASU President, Emmanuel Asagha, who addressed newsmen at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) College of Education , Zuba, described the attitude as unfair and capable of destroying the system.
    According to him, government has not accorded the two sub-sectors respect enjoyed by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) because it feels only the children of the peasants, artisans and the less privileged attend them.
    Asagha’s word: “Nigerian government is running not only an elitist government but a class government. The specification is so clear. When ASUU is on strike, everybody gets concerned.
    “Certain persons serving in the present government asked me to suspend the strike because I may not have the sympathy that ASUU has gotten. I told him it is because he does not have a child in the Colleges of Education. When ASUU is on strike, they will even call the governor of a state to mediate.
    “ASUP has been on strike since October, nobody called them to anywhere. The more we (COEASU) met with government, the more the memorandum we signed and the more we got betrayed”, he lamented.
    Asagha said the money required to bail the Federal Colleges of Education was just about N30 billion, “which is a small money for the ruling party”.
    “We believe one day God will send us somebody that has an interest in the system and save the masses.”
    Asagha likened the problems in the education sector to the crisis in the North and South-South where issues had been left unattended to overtime.
    “We would have had peace in the North and South South today if people had heeded warnings”, he said.
    Asagha said the union will not withdraw from its plan to protest the neglect and discrimination in the sector.
    “We will carry the protest to the presidency and not to the National Assembly. We are going to write the security agencies, nobody should beat a child and ask the child not to cry.
    “Government is known for spending billions on repairs instead of prevention. The funding chat for Colleges of Education is so ridiculous. May be the reason because the people in the top echelon don’t have stake in the Colleges of Education.
    “No one is better than the other. Some people have decided to attend colleges of education because they have chosen teaching as profession. Not because they are less privileged or don’t have the competence to attend universities”, he said.

  • Ebonyi suspends 15 lecturers over certificate forgery

    The Ebonyi Government on Thursday suspended 15 lecturers of the state’s own College of Education, Ikwo, indefinitely.

    The Personal Assistant to the state governor on Higher Education, Prof. Mike Itumo, told journalists in Abakaliki that the affected lecturers were alleged to possess forged Masters and Doctorate degree certificates.

    Itumo said that the suspension had been approved by the institution’s disciplinary body and communicated to Governor Martin Elechi.

    He said that further sanctions would be given to the affected lecturers at the end of full-scale investigation.

    “There is an ongoing investigation into the allegation and, as soon as it is concluded, further sanctions will be announced.

    “Forgery is a criminal offence and our system frowns at it, and so we shall not hesitate to institute criminal proceedings against those found liable.

    “We are determined to clean up the augean stable and we will stop at nothing to achieve this,’’ Itumo said.

    He restated government’s determination to make the college a model for teacher education and maintained that plans to upgrade the institution to a degree-awarding college had reached final stage.

    The aide warned that government would, henceforth, clamp down on illegal and unapproved satellite campuses and study centres of unrecognised institutions of higher learning operating in the state.

    He said the state would not recognise certificates or degrees obtained from such institutions for employment or any other academic transaction.

    “We are committed to entrenching academic excellence in order to safeguard the educational future of our state and that of our children.

    “In doing this, we shall ensure that those we have entrusted with the academic destiny of the state are those qualified to do it.

    “We will not condone in our tertiary education system those whose academic qualifications are questionable; nothing short of the best is acceptable to us,’’ he said.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the 15 senior lecturers in the institution were discovered in December, 2012 to be teaching with forged masters and doctorate degree certificates.