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Tag: College

  • Deji of Akure to support College of Agriculture

    Deji of Akure to support College of Agriculture

    The Deji of Akure,  Oba Kole Aladetoyinbo, has called for renewed interest in agriculture.

     He made the call while receiving the management team of the College of Agriculture, Akure, who visited him.

    He said this would enable the nation to harness numerous benefits derivable from agriculture.

    Oba Aladetoyinbo promised to support the college.

    He appreciated the college management for the visit. He praised the Provost for his foresight and commitment to the institution, lauding the giant strides he achieved in the College.

    He urged the management team not to rest on their oars in ensuring that they position the college and the state on the map.

    Oba Aladetoyinbo promised to support the programmes and projects in the college.

    The provost of the college, Dr Samson Odedina, congratulated Oba Aladetoyinbo on his elevation to the exalted position. He told the king of the  programmes and projects ongoing at the institution. They include: international partnerships/collaborations for agricultural value chain projects for students and communities, improved college-neighbouring communities relations, profitable agribusiness investments, provision of employment opportunities for students and indigenes, agricultural vocational trainings.

    Odedina solicited the support of Oba Aladetoyinbo and the Akure Kingdom for the college.

  • Battle over ‘high fees’ at Science/Tech College

    Battle over ‘high fees’ at Science/Tech College

    Parents are up in arms against the Federal Science and Technical College (FSTC) in Yaba, Lagos Mainland, over “high fees”. They are accusing the school and the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) executive of weighing them down with more fees than necessary. But, the school and the PTA deny the allegation, saying all they have done is for the school’s welfare, report KOFOWOROLA BELO-OSAGIE, OLUWATOYIN ADELEYE and MOJISOLA CLEMENT

    The controversy about fees at the Federal Science and Technical College (FSTC), Yaba, Lagos Mainland has refused to go away.  Parents are at loggerheads with the management and PTA leadership over allegations of extortion, which they claim began since the Principal, Rev Chris Ugorji, was posted to the school in July 2014.

    Their complaints range from being forced to pay various bills they do not agree with, to paying too much money into the PTA’s purse that is not well accounted for.

    The PTA executive, teachers and School Based Management Committee (SBMC) are on the principal’s side. They say a lot of improvements have taken place in the school since he took over. They also defend all the money the parents have been asked to pay.

     

    Parents Complaints

     

    The complaints about the school’s fees initially caught media attention last September in form of an editorial cartoon published in a national daily, which flayed the school’s high fees of N217,300 for new pupils thereby alienating the poor from the Federal Government institution.

    However, last Saturday, a protest was staged by five parents as the college opened its gates to the first set of pupils resuming for the second term of the 2015/2016 academic session.  They bore placards that accused the principal of extortion.

    One of them, Mr Anjorin Kayode alleged that they paid too much money for books. He complained that before Ugorji, they paid N12,000.  However, when they picked up the bill for the second term, they found that some of them now pay as much as N30,000.

    “Before Ugorji was transferred here, we paid N12,000 only for book.  But that is not to be anymore. Now, we pay a deposit of N12,000.  Then our children are given books and made to sign for them in the ledgers the school opens for them. We were made to pay the balance this term.They give them books that they would not use. Some of the books are brought back home almost new and not used at all,” he said.

    Contrary to the new Federal Government directive that all Federal institutions should plug into the Treasury Single Account (TSA), parents alleged that they were told to pay a section of this term’s fees (not the PTA levy) into the PTA account.

    Mr Ojo Olushola, questioned why this was so: “We pay other levies into the PTA account aside the PTA levy.  A section of the bill directed parents to meet the bursar for details of how to make payment,” he said.

    Kayode also alleged that the school introduced mid-day meal of N6,500 per pupil, which they were told was optional, but then shifted the lunch time from 2pm to 3.30pm, a ploy he alleged was to force parents to pay for the mid-day meal.

    “Normally, the lunch hour is 2pm.  But because we refused to pay for the mid day meal, it was shifted to 3.30 pm which led to the pupils starving and we parents were forced to pay for it,” he said.

    Another parent, Mr Gboyega Alaka’s grouse was against how the school management and the PTA imposed fees on parents. He told The Nation that when new fees/levies are announced at meetings, and parents object to them, the school management and PTA still include them in the bill, and once included, must be paid for.  He said failure to do so results in the pupils being denied access to the school.

    He said  matters not concluded at the various meetings come into the news letter as law and become binding on all parents.

    “During PTA meetings, people with contrary opinions are not allowed to talk because the microphone is never given to them.  The microphone is always passed to their allies who will only support and praise them but will shy away from the truth,” Alaka said.

    A bone of contention in this regard is the N6,500 hostel development levy included in the PTA bill for this term. The PTA demanded for the amount to complete a 1,200 bed girls’ hostel project started in 2014 to alleviate the school’s boarding accommodation shortage.

    Alaka said at a PTA meeting held on December 18, last year, where the matter was discussed, there was no consensus to pay the amount.  Parents had questioned the need for the levy after paying N30,000 per child spread across three terms last session for the same project. However, he was surprised that the amount was included in the bill.

    “It is true we agreed to pay N30,000 for the girls’ hostel building project which will cost N120 million. We also agreed to spread the payment over three terms which amounted to  N10,000 for each of the term. Now the bone of contention is the new N6,500 that is evident in our bills which is also for the building project despite the fact that we have paid the initial N30,000.  We did not agree to pay the N6,500,” he said.

    Kayode also wondered why the initial N30,000, totalling N120 million for the school’s 4,000 pupils was not enough to cover the project.

    “If we agreed to build a hostel for the school with N120 million, I think it should go a long way to complete the project,” he said.

    Kayode added that the N3,000 laundry levy was introduced in a similar way like the N6,500 – without consensus from parents.

    “The principal introduced a laundry system last year which all parents are made to pay N3,000 for even though we complained that the pupils should be made to clean their own clothes themselves. It is only their white uniforms that are washed, not the others,” he said.

    Many parents did not join the protest.  However, they confirmed the issues they complained about to The Nation.  Many of them declined to give their names because of fears that their wards would be victimised.

    Another parent, who was not part of the protesters, Mr Jeremiah Attah, was unhappy that the pupils’ clothes were misplaced by the laundry service firm but not compensated for the loss.

    “We pay N3,000 for laundry every term.The company loses their uniforms without compensation,” he said.

    The parents also complained that if they left out any of the fees on the bill, even levies that were impromptu, or items they were meant to bring, their wards were barred from entering the school.

    A case in point was when parents were asked to pay N1,000 for a motivational speech by Dr Ken Katas (a motivational speaker from Port Harcourt) at the beginning of last term. A parent complained that his wife had to borrow the money from a cousin working nearby because the school insisted on collecting the N1,000 before his son was allowed to enter.

    Another parent, John Obafemi, faulted the amount of money collected for the motivational programme, saying it was exorbitant.

    “We want him to go. He made us pay N1,000 per child for inspiration talk, making N4 million for the 4,000 students in the school. Are you telling me the speaker was paid N4 million in a Federal School?”

    Last Saturday, our reporter observed that pupils who did not bring big-sized Harpic toilet cleaner, disinfectant, air-freshener were sent out of the school to buy them.

    A parent, who preferred not to be named, however, lamented that despite the large amounts of toiletries that the school collects, the pupils come back home with toilet infections.

    “I was asked to come and take my child from the clinic after he started urinating blood last term.  Can you imagine a small child urinating blood? He told me that the toilets don’t flush well; that sometimes he has to stand on it to defecate,” he said.

     

    The School’s Defense

     

    The Principal, Rev Ugorji, denied all the claims of extortion by the parents.  He described the protest as blackmail, noting that the fees charged by the college were the cheapest among unity schools in Lagos State.

    “The protest was just falsehood and blackmail against us and we have informed the ministry. They have sent people to investigate it. Check the fees we charge here and compare with other federal schools.  Ours is not the highest. We mean well here. We do not extort money,” he said.

    On the books, Ugorji explained that the N12,000 approved by the Federal Ministry of Education for books does not cover all the books recommended for the curriculum.  So, to ensure parents buy books for their wards, the school gets publishers to supply the books, issues them to the pupils and debit their accounts.

    He said unlike other Unity schools in Lagos (King’s College, Queen’s College and Federal Government College, Ijanikin) that charge a lump sum of N30,000-N35,000 for books, the FSTC Yaba decided to spread the amount to ease the burden on parents.

    “Before in this school, students don’t have books.  We now came and said every student should have books approved by the school.  At the end of the term, we calculated all the books collected and deducted what they paid from it.  The balance is what reflected in the second term bill.

    “Unfortunately, parents who are not used to buying books for their children complained.  Here, we don’t charge anything extra. We have training materials, term by term. For parents that complained, they are uninformed,” he said.

    Concerning the claims of paying into accounts other than the TSA, Ugorji said there was a mix up in the bill and parents were sent text messages to pay into the TSA.

    He said: “I am sorry to say this but most of the parents of our pupils are not literates. When we realised our error in the bill, we sent a bulk SMS to all our parents that all fees should be paid into the TSA, except PTA levy. All payments in this school are paid to Central Bank.”

    The Bursar of the school, Mr Julius Olupona also denied the allegations that some of the fees were paid to him as suggested in the school’s newsletter.

    “I usually redirect them to pay into the Central Bank. Anybody who did otherwise did not fully understand the instruction,” he said.

    Contrary to claims that the school raked money from the inspirational programme it organised for the pupils, Ugorji said not all students paid for the programme.

    “Our records are very open. It is an open door policy here. It is a Federal Government project. That man goes to all schools to talk to the pupils and encourage them to read. He is a veteran in that field and their results can testify to what he did. They have all improved. More than a thousand of the pupils did not pay the said amount,” Ugorji said.

    He also accused the parents of defaulting on fees, which was the reason for the insistence that all payments be made before pupils are allowed to resume.  However, despite this policy, he said some parents still default.

    “Last session, many final year students, about 120 of them, did not pay fees and they left. So, to prevent that, the final classes, JSS 3, SS 3 and Year 3 for the technical school, now pay their second and third term fees together in second term,” he said.

    Ugorji added that he had done a lot since became principal to improve the infrastructure in the school despite limited resources from government.

    “I am very surprised at this. Is this what I get for trying to change the school to an elite school within my one year and five month stay? Their results are a very good testimony. Their appearance as also improved, commitment on the part of the teachers is also on the high scale,” he said.

    Teachers of the school condemned the parents for berating the principal, who they said has worked very hard to make the school better.

    The Chairman, Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), Mr Abdurafi Abdu-Quadri, said the school management and the PTA were doing their to make the school conducive for learning, especially in light of neglect by the Federal Government.  He condemned the parents for the protest.

    “Members of staff are not happy about the negative publicity some parents are attracting to the school. There are due processes to lay complaints and they did not follow it.  Coming forward to hold placards was not thoughtful of them. We are supposed to be good examples to the children. We see parents who are not assisting in the teaching and learning process. Despite the lapses of the Federal Government, we have a duty and we appreciate the PTA for their support. Stop distracting the college form its core responsibilities,” he said.

    To address the issue about books, some teachers of the school, advised the management to charge the full fees at the beginning of the session like it is done in other unity schools.

    A parent, Mr Augustine Onyejekwe, also condemned the parents.  The man, a Superintendent of police from Abuja and father of three pupils in the school, referred to the protesters as a group of people who do not support good things as well as peddlers of lies.

    Onyejekwe added that he did not paid any bills in the school to any other bank aside from the TSA. He also said that there had been positive improvement in the school since the coming of the Principal.

    “Those people are complete liars. I know what the school was like years ago and what it is at present. There has been massive improvement since this Principal came. I am not supporting him but the truth must be told. They are instigating nonsense. They want to bring us back to what we have years ago,” Onyejekwe said.

     

    The PTA’s Defense

     

    Chairman of the school’s PTA, Mrs Oby Igwillo, described the protest by a few parents as a distraction from the good work the school and the association are doing.

    “It is only a blind person that will enter this school and will have something negative to say.  My team, the PTA Exco, we’re on a mission.  We cannot be deterred by any force of opposition,” she said.

    Refuting claims that the N6,500 was forced on parents, she said: “The parents demanded for project report and we give them a detailed report, item by item.

    “At the last meeting on December 18, 2015, we agreed to pay extra and some complained that the amount was too high. Parents raised objections, saying we should hire cheap labour, buy cement cheaper, etc. But they did not consider the fact that the money we had spent in the past was also quite high.

    “But others supported the motion, because they complained of the stress of bringing their wards from home every day. The N6,500 was not stipulated in the newsletter because we had to take it to the general assembly first. Parents lauded the project, saying it was very commendable that we were building a hostel of 1,200 bed spaces at the low amount of N185 million. So far, we have spent well over 100 million and we are soliciting for N24 million now.

    “Not all parents paid the stipulated amount for the hostel and we also used some of the money to renovate the existing male and female hostels,” she said.

    Instead of reproach, she said the PTA deserved commendation for the hostel project, which has reached 90 per cent completion.

    “When other PTA Chairmen visit, they ask us where we get the money to do what we are doing.  Here, our primary goal is to see that our children’s welfare is met,” she said.

    Regarding the problem of dirty toilets, Mrs Igwillo said the PTA had suggested that parents should pay corporate cleaners to clean the toilets but they refused.

    Mrs Igwillo also refuted claims that she was benefitting from the laundry funds or planting parents in PTA meetings to support her ideas.

    Like the principal, Mrs Igwillo said those protesting were on a vendetta mission.

    “At FSTC Yaba, we charge the lowest fees among other federal schools. I want the public to know that we have some people that want to bring us down, but we have facts. Education is priceless. You owe your child the duty of quality education,” she said.

    Mr Akintoyosi Akin, chairman FSTC School Based Management Committee (SBMC), also debunked the allegations against the PTA.

    “All the allegations were unfounded. I was invited as an observer at the last PTA meeting. Parents agreed within themselves and the resolutions were seconded,” she said.

    The parents that protested were forcefully driven to the Sabo Police Station along with two journalists (from The Nation and Punch), though the Principal insisted it was only an invitation, not an arrest. At the station, the Divisional Police Officer advised both parties to settle.

     

  • College worker found dead

    A member of the staff of the Adeyemi College of Education (ACE) in Ondo West Local Government Area of Ondo State, Ms Evelyn Ajagun, has been found dead in her apartment at Palmgrove Street, Oka in Ondo town.

    Sources said the decomposing body was discovered at the weekend.

    It was learnt that neighbours forced her door open when a strange odour was traced to her apartment.

    A student said the last time they saw Ms Ajagun was last Tuesday.

    She noted that the circumstances surrounding her death still remained a mystery.

    The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in Enu Owa, Adekunle Omisakin, said preliminary investigation showed that the deceased was probably sick and had no one to attend to her.

    He said the incident occurred because her neighbours were students, who had travelled home for the New Year break.

    Omisakin said the remains have been evacuated to the Ondo General Hospital morgue.

  • Osun sacks 150 college workers

    Osun sacks 150 college workers

    More than 150 workers of the Osun State Colleges of Education in Ilesa and Ila-Orangun have been sacked.

    Sack letters were said to have been handed over to the academic and non academic staff of the institutions across various caders.

    Eighty five workers of the College of Education Ilesa were given sack letters and sixty nine in the College of Education, Ila.

    It was learnt that the State Polytechnic, Iree and state College of Technology were not affected by the sack.

    The Director, Bureau of Communication in the Office of the Governor, Semiu Okanlawon, said those affected were workers employed by the managements of the two colleges and not by the government.

    According to him, the termination of the workers’ appointments had long been decided, adding that “giving out letters to the affected staff now is just the conclusion of the process”.

    The Academic Staff Unions of both institutions have notified the government of readiness to take “any necessary action” against the sack.

    Also, the Council of Academic Staff Unions of Osun State owned Tertiary Institutions has directed members not to “collect any sack letter”.

    In a statement by its Chairman and Secretary, Lasisi Jimoh, and Lana Olusegun, the union alleged that the government had failed to address “festering issues despite the unions’ several pleas and ultimatum”.

    The union said that a congress will soon hold to decide the next line of action.

  • UNICEF, College urge Osun to adopt UBE policy

    The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)  in collaboration with the Osun State College of Education, Ilesa has implored the Osun State government to adopt the 2004 Universal Basic Education (UBE) policy to accommodate pre-schoolers.

    The policy mandates every public primary school to have a pre-primary school linkage to cater for children aged three to five.

    In a communiqué signed by the Drafting Committee’s chairman and secretary, Wahab Ibrahim, and Mrs. Adebola Olayinka, the participants agreed that stakeholders should pay an advocacy visit to the Osun State House of Assembly to sensitise its members on the importance of early childhood education.

    The training for stakeholders of pre-primary education drawn from schools, communities across the 30 local government areas of the state and the media had about 50 participants, who urged the Rauf Aregbesola administration to take advantage of all UNICEF’s assisted early childhood education in Nigeria.

    The participants also said enlightenment campaigns should be conducted by stakeholders in the focal council areas to make the people key into the programme.

    They said the trainers and the caregivers linked with the programme should be adequately equipped.

  • College celebrates 20th anniversary in Port Harcourt

    College celebrates 20th anniversary in Port Harcourt

    •Discloses plan to expand school to the Southsouth 

    The Board of Governors of Trinity International College Ofada, Ogun state says it would establish the school in the South-south of the country to give more parents opportunity to give the desired quality education to their children.

    The chairman of the Board, Samuel Olatunji spoke at the 20th anniversary celebration of the college held in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital recently.

    Olatunji said the plan was concluded 10 years ago but was suspended following increased cases of insecurity in the area, but said the Board has no choice to implement the plan any soon to allow parents and their wards who have been hindered by distance the chance to access the kind of education they desire.

    “We don’t have a choice, it is a question of time because we cannot remain only a Lagos school forever, the country is growing and our kind of school will be needed and the South-south and Port Harcourt is one area that we have drawn a lot of students overtime, going be this,  it is only natural that the school  be built here as well.”

    The college he said was founded in 1995 to fill the gap created by decay in education sector of the country by restoring the lost qualities, values, commitments, uprightness that used to be the norm in the sector before.

    “Trinity International College is a secondary school we started 20 years ago basically for our own children because of the concern we had at that time for the state of education in the country, morals were going down, a lot of crisis in the sector, we were just very highly concerned about the state of affairs and thought of how we were going to solve the problem at our level, so we challenged ourselves and started the school.

    “The early days of the school was dominated by our own children because that was the primary motivation and the values we set out to impact and we went about it, the commitment and the passion, that became clear to many more people and they sent in their wards, and the college has since then continued to grow. It is today one of the largest private secondary schools in the country.” He said.

    Speaking on what distinguishes the college from other schools said, “Commitment to work, values, academic excellence, uprightness among others and in this 20 years we have continued to keep to our focus and ensure that everybody does his work, with those values kept to the letter.”

    He said the celebration was shifted to the Southsouth as a way to express the high level of patronage the school has enjoyed from inception from residents of this area, especially Port Harcourt.

    “Right from the year we started, parents from this part of the country have been part of the college family and increasingly so overtime.” “… a large amount of support has come from here as well and we’ve also noticed that it will not be easy for every of our parent from this area to come to Lagos for this, it is only proper for us to come to our second largest catchment base (the South-south), to stage the celebration, as a way to show our gratitude for being a part of our family.”

    Parents who spoke at the occasion extols the virtues of the school and expressed their satisfaction with their qualities and standard.

    The chairman of the event and one f the parents, Ugochukwu Ohuabunwa, described the college as being original. He said the passion of the founders in running and growing a school in its original form is a distinguishing factor. He called on school operators to put aside quick profiteering in education business.

    “Education is not a quick profit oriented business, but a sustainable investment development which has to take a long time before yielding profit, and Trinity International College is a typical example of how school business should be ran.” He stated.

     

  • Resolving a college’s financial woes

    Resolving a college’s financial woes

    The new Governing Council of the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education (AOCOED), Otto-Ijanikin, has embarked on ‘stringent’ reforms to sanitise the system it described as ‘rotten’ and block loopholes. But workers say unless a financial intervention comes from the Lagos State Government, the reforms would not solve the institution’s problems. ADEGUNLE OLUGBAMILA reports.

    The Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education (AOCOED) Otto/Ijanikin, Lagos State, is struggling to pay salaries.  Its management has been dipping ita hands into pension funds of workers and cooperative societies’ deductions to augment the N125 million monthly subvention from its proprietor, the Lagos State Government for the past two years.

    This has led to a debt of about N200 million owed cooperatives as well as the workers for pension.

    The workers are not happy about the situation and have called on the government to provide emergency bailout funds and increase the subvention to the institution. Their discontent led to a lockdown of the campus in August and a series of meetings with government officials.

    The leadership of the College of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) and the Senior Staff Union of Colleges of Education in Nigeria (SSUCOEN) have been fighting against the practice of running the school with cooperatives’ contributions and pension fund since the administration of the immediate past provost, Mr Bashorun Olalekan.

    COEASU chairman Michael Avosetinyen said the situation is worrisome.

    “The financial status of AOCOED is nothing to write about. Our internally-generated revenue (IGR) is critically lean when compared to what we had in 2012 and 2013.  Government’s monthly subvention cannot pay salaries and meet other demands.  Over the last 25 months, our pensions were deducted but not remitted because management said if they did that, they would not be able to pay our salaries,” Avosentiyen said.

    SSUCOEN chairman Wunmi Ombugadu said the situation is so bad that a bailout was needed urgently.

    However, the new chairman of the Governing Council, Prof Tunde Samuel, believes the solution to the problem is blocking loopholes in the institution.

    Samuel, who was inaugurated in September, by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, has told workers that a financial reprieve may not be underway if the college cannot justify the effective utilisation of resources deployed by the governement.

    “The whole system is rotten and needs complete overhaul,” Samuel told this reporter Friday last week.

    “As a professor of Economics of Education, I don’t believe there is underfunding (in AOCOED) but managerial incompetence. In my specialty there are certain indices that must be satisfied before you can say an organisation is underfunded, overfunded or not properly funded. Firstly, you examine the optimal utilisation of allocation to the institution. What is the rate of leakages and wastages during disbursement of fund?”

    Samuel frowned at the diversion of pension funds to pay salaries, blaming the previous council for not checking such occurrence.

    He said: “You are not expected to convert pension deductions as well as cooperative accounts to pay workers’ salaries. It is more than criminal.

    “As I am talking to you, almost N200 million pension deductions were not remitted; and the college used the money to upgrade their financial insolvency without the approval of their proprietor. That means the prospective retirees would have their claims in jeopardy now.  If we had a proactive Governing Council in place, all those things would not have happen happened.”

    Nevertheless, many workers consider the council’s claim that the institution does not need funds as a joke.

    Chairman, Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) of the college, Comrade Femi Adebayo, described the Council’s quest for blocking loopholes as a mere political statement.

    He said: “It is a mere political statement. We are not part of management, therefore, we are less concerned about blocking loopholes. If there are, let them tell us, but Council has not found a way to seek audience with us. All we are interested in is the money they owe us. We took a loan from bank and management is the guarantor.

    “Since their inauguration, they have held meetings more than three times and our Edict says Council can only hold meetings four times in a year. Each time they sit, they all collect sitting allowance. They are not coming for charity. Management must look for money to pay them; and we are saying the college is broke. Is it what we need at this time? They are coming too often and, to me, they are simply buying time. Management should just pay us the bank loan they are collecting; otherwise, we would shut down the place again soonest.”

    An academic staff of the institution (names withheld) also believes government needs to up the institution’s financial status.

    “Reform is one aspect; but our major problem is underfunding,” said the source. “Our monthly subvention is N125 million. We have IGR and that is where we remove about N10 million monthly to augment salaries. It is even more if the cooperative money is being removed. If the subvention is okay, there won’t be any problem. He (council chairman) is a professor of Economics of Education and he must have seen those documents before him.”

    A source from the Registry Unit also said no amount of  plugging loopholes can create any magic, except the Council accepted  that the institution needs financial liberation.

    “The council may just end up digging us deeper into financial chaos. We have repeatedly made our position known to government before the new council came on board. All they (Council) need do is to push our agitations further down government throat so that we can get out of this mess in no time.”

    Apart from financial problems, Samuel also complained about academic misconduct in the institution, which led the council to sack two lecturers.

    “There are some professional misconducts recorded among staff whose appointment have been terminated already, while others were recommended for dismissal. The Council voted for the latter. The severity of the matter has to do with a lecturer altering marks for a female student with about six carry overs. The student too has finally been expelled.

    “Governing Council had to set up a committee for a case that should have been decided since last year February, because the (former) Council was foot dragging over it.  Another very senior lecturer and a pastor for that matter was accused of plagiarism. He was found guilty and Council decided he must be separated from the institution. Those were the two major cases,” he said.

    The COEASU does not fault the council’s position on discipline.  Its chairman, Avosentiyen, said the union had always warned members not to dabble into anything that would burn their fingers.

    “We have repeatedly made a release to our members to steer clear of un-academic practices and that anybody that is found wanting should face the music. We have always told them the law is no respecter of any person,” he said.

    Another contending issue is the current status of workers of the AOCOED International School and AOCOED Staff School run by the college.

    SSUCOEN chairman, Ombugadu, urged Council not to go ahead with the planned disengagement of workers of the two schools but absorb them into the college.

    “Their letter of employment stated that it was AOCOED and not the schools that employed them.  Therefore, we are urging the Council that rather than relieve them, they should gradually realign them back to the mainstream. We know it was the former management that misled the Council into wanting to disengage them,” she said.

    Public Relations Officer of the college, Odunayo Adebowale, declined comments about the various issues, claiming he is currently on leave.

     

  • College holds workshop on ‘tolerance’

    College holds workshop on ‘tolerance’

    As part of activities to mark the UN International Day Of Tolerance, The Edidot College, Badore, Lagos, has organised a workshop to sensitise its pupils on the merits and demerits of tolerance.

    The workshop themed: “Talents for tolerance”, which took place at the schools premises, was led by a consultant/emotional Intelligence trainer at FINK AFRICA, Abigail Adeyanju who explored the pupils’ emotions by creating varieties of hate and compassion situations.  She prodded the children to brainstorm and discuss the potential effects of intolerance in their immediate community, society and the world.

    Adeyanju identified injustice, violence, discrimination and marginalisation as common features of intolerance. Nonetheless, she noted that acquiring education to tolerate others should aim at countering influences that lead to fear and hatred for others.

    “Schools are where we can capture children because the world is interested in the application of knowledge they learnt from schools,” she said.

    Speaking on the gains of the workshop, Principal of the College,  Mrs Franca Alayo said it would help the pupils to be tolerant, love and be patient with one another.

    She, however, called on parents not to renege on their primary role, which is the upbringing of their children, to compliment what they acquire in school.

    Mrs Alayo also said if the campaign on tolerance is well coordinated and sustained through workshops and other forums, terrorism, war, and unhappy relationships, among other vices would reduce in Nigeria.

  • College inducts 1,125 teachers

    No fewer than 1,125 teachers were inducted at the Federal College of Education (FCE) in Eha-Amufu, Enugu State by the Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN).

    The inductees are graduates of Professional Diploma in Education (PDE) and Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE).

    Registrar/Chief Executive Officer, TRCN, Prof Mark Wokocha, said the event was a rite aimed at ensuring qualified teachers were recruited, stressing that teaching was no longer a profession for all-comers.

    Represented by TRCN’s Director of Operations Alhaji Ibrahim Roni, Wokocha said the oath-taking was a prerequisite for professional practice and legal basis for admitting teachers.

    He said: “The oath administration is meant to symbolise induction of all graduates into the teaching profession. By this event, all inductees are accepted into the profession without having to go for another professional examination. This is to encourage young and fresh graduates into the profession.”

    Wokocha, however, cautioned the inductees against breaching the oath of professionalism, saying anyone who acted contrary to the oath would be sanctioned. He said that some regulatory mechanisms, such as Teachers’ Investigative Panel and Teachers Tribunal, had been set up to investigate and try any teacher that engaged in unwholesome practice.

    He congratulated the college management for ensuring quality teachers’ training, praising the Director of PDE programme, Dr Cecilia Obioma Eze, for making the induction successful.

    The Commissioner of Education, Prof Uche Eze, said good teachers remained crucial in the implementation of education policies and programmes. Noting that emphasis was no longer on certificates, the commissioner urged the inductees to rise to the challenge of updating their knowledge regularly in line with the requirement of the profession.

    He said: “Every teacher is a learner. The day you stop learning is the day you stopped being a teacher. Teaching strategies and techniques change every day, and every teacher must always be abreast of development on the field.”

    The ceremony featured a lecture titled: Professionalisation of teaching in Nigeria: The role of TRCN. It was delivered by the Dean, School of Education, Dr A. B. Ugwu. He lamented that, despite the importance of the profession to nation building, TRCN was slow in flushing out unqualified teachers and prosecuting teachers who contravened its regulatory laws.

    The Provost, Prof Benjamin Mbah, hailed TRCN for what he called positive development in teaching, saying the body had exposed teachers to international best practices by its membership of the International Federation of Teachers Regulatory Authorities.

    He said the council had set the standards and raised the bar of excellence among teachers to enable them gain international acceptance.

    Mbah said: “This induction is special to us. The college expects that all inductees will be instrument to bring about the needed change in the nation’s education.”

     

  • Alaafin makes case for college’s upgrade

    Alaafin makes case for college’s upgrade

    The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamdi Olayiwola Adeyemi III has called on the Federal Government and the National Universities Commission (NUC) to, as a matter of utmost concern, give adequate consideration to upgrading the Federal College of Education (Special) Oyo, to a full-fledged university.

    Alaafin said education should be seen by the government as a basic human right and the foundation for a more just and equal society.

    The paramount ruler made the call when the management of the college led by its Provost, Prof Usman Kamarudeen, visited his palace on Monday.

    The visit was in appreciation of the monarch’s son Prince Adeniyi moving a motion in the House of Representatives, where he represents Oyo Federal Constituency, for the upgrading of the college into a university.

    The motion, which was applauded by the house, led to the constitution of a special committee to liaise with the NUC on modalities for upgrading the college into a university.

    Oba Adeyemi said the college, established about 35 years ago, is the only one of its type that trains teachers to teach special needs learners in Africa, South of Sahara.

    He said besides the fact that the institution has contributed immensely towards the training of several thousands of pupils with special needs and integrating them into the society, its contemporary, though not as special college, Adeyemi College of Education in Ondo State,  had since been upgraded into a full-fledged university.  (However, the upgrade was reversed by the Federal Government).

    The monarch also urged the Federal Government to improve funding for the education of people with disabilities.

    He said: “The National Education Policy document, among other things, calls for access of special needs children, with their varying abilities to education in conducive and less restrictive environments to enable them achieve self-fulfillment. Thus, the inclusive education paradigm in Nigeria (like that of other countries) has evolved out of the realisation that all children have the right to receive the kind of education that does not discriminate on the grounds of disability, ethnicity, religion, language, gender, or capabilities.

    Alaafin, who expressed satisfaction at the performance of the college, urged the new Provost to re-dedicate himself to ensuring the progress of the college.

    Earlier in his address, the Director of Academic Planning, Dr. Tajudeen Opoola, who represented the Provost,  thanked Prince Adeniyi for the motion.  He also said the college had all that is required to become a university, such as structures, human and non-human resources.  He said what is needed is the political backing and royal support.

    Oba Adeyemi presented a copy of the CD that has Adeniyi’s motion for ugrading the college into a university, to the Provost.