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Tag: colleges

  • 60 poly, colleges for NIPOGA

    Sixty polytechnics and colleges of technology will be competing for honours at the 18th Nigeria Polytechnic Games (NIPOGA) to be hosted by the Federal Polytechnic, Bida in November.

    Chairman, Local Organising Committee (LOC), Mallam Ibrahim Usman Buhari, made this known to reporters in Bida, highlighting the level of preparedness of the institution for the games.

    Buhari said the games tagged: ‘NIPOGA Bida 2014’, would kick off from last Saturday would end on November 15.

    According to him, athletes will compete for laurels in various fields and track events, which will include: football, basket ball, volley ball, tennis, badminton, and table tennis.

    Others are: chess, scrabble, taekwando, and various athletic events.

    The LOC chair said a new ultra-modern sports hall was being constructed and was expected to be completed before the end of October while two modern Basket Ball Courts had been completed with flood lights installed.

    The stadium complex, volley ball courts and other pitches to be used were being given a face-lift while the construction of a cynder track for track events is at advanced stage, he added.

    He added that a fundraiser dinner had been planned for Abuja on Thursday, September 18 chaired by Gen Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (rtd), with Alhaji Aliko Dangote as the chief launcher.

    The dinner, which will have in attendance distinguished personalities from across Nigeria, was expected to raise funds for the successful hosting of the games.

    Buhari assured that the LOC hoped to raise the bar in the forthcoming NIPOGA, adding that the host institution intends to use the contest to showcase the popular standard Bida Polytechnics operates.

  • Oyo to revive technical colleges

    The five technical and vocational colleges owned by the Oyo State Government will soon be revived, the state government said yesterday.

    The government also reiterated its commitment to funding the Education sector.

    The Commissioner for Education, Mrs Adetokunbo Fayokun, spoke during the technical and vocational education stakeholders’ meeting at the state secretariat in Ibadan.

    She blamed the sorry state of the colleges on the neglect by past administrations and dearth teachers to handle the vocational courses offered in the schools.

    “You can be sure that conditions of our technical colleges will change for the better now, because Governor Abiola Ajimobi is interested in turning them around. He has asked us to do our needs assessment and get back to him for approval,” Mrs Fayokun said.

    The commissioner stressed that the Ajimobi administration was determined to address some of the challenges confronting technical education in the state.

    She added: “There is need to set their priority right, considering the huge resources required in meeting most of our needs. The financial wherewithal to address all the needs at once is not available.”

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Wada’s wife seeks more technical colleges

    Wada’s wife seeks more technical colleges

    Wife of the Kogi State governor and Chief Executive Officer Faridah Wada Foundation, Mrs. Faridah Wada has reiterated the need to establish more technical colleges in the country with a view to tackling unemployment and youth restiveness.

    Mrs. Wada spoke during a Spelling Bee competition organised for junior secondary schools in Abuja.

    The schools that participated in the competition included Community Staff Secondary School, Asokoro; Government Secondary School, Jikwoyi; Government Secondary School, Karu; Government Secondary School, Tudun-wada and Government Secondary School, Maitama.

    The event was jointly organised by corps member, Miss Zainab Haruna in conjunction with the Faridah Wada Foundation at Government Science and Technical College, Garki.

    In her opening remarks, the Mrs. Wada said technical education was a panacea for curtailing the unemployment rate in the country.

    “If students are made to learn and acquire technical skills at this level by the time they are through with tertiary education, they would still have something which they can fall back to in the absence of any job,” she said.

    She commended Miss Haruna, the initiator of the competition and promised that her organisation would sustain the project even after the pass out of the corps members.

    “As a group, we believe in the girl child education and the youth. I wish to state here today that what Miss Zainab has started will be sustained by the Faridah Wada Foundation so that her efforts will not be in vain,” she said.

    At the end of the competition which was supervised by the Head of Department, English and Linguistics Nasarawa State University Dr. Gideon Omachonu, Community Staff School Asokoro emerged winners and were followed by Government Secondary School Karu.

  • Strike grounds polys, tech colleges

    Polytechnics and Colleges of Technology nationwide have been on forced recess in the past three weeks.

    Although students are on campus, they are not being taught. They are however, registering for their courses and carrying out related chores since the non-academic members of staff are working. The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) embarked on the strike on April 29 over what it called the Federal Government’s failure to address its grievances. Teachers in the colleges of education with similar grievance may soon join the strike too, if the government does not act fast.

    The Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) has given the government up till May 31 to meet its demands or face a strike.

    In a communiqué issued after an emergency National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Abuja on April 18, ASUP’s National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Clement Chirman, listed the union’s demands as: non re-constitution of the governing councils of Polytechnics, Monotechnics, and Colleges of Technology; non release of government white paper of the visitation panels to the federal polytechnics; and non commencement of the NEED Assessments of the Nigerian Polytechnics.

    Others are the worrisome state of state-owned polytechnics, monotechnics, and colleges of technology; the continued appointment of unqualified persons as rectors and provosts of some state polytechnics, monotechnics and colleges of technology; and the failure of most state governments to implement the approved salary package (CONPCASS) and 65-year retirement age.

    The union also complained about the continued appointment of principal officers in acting capacity in some institutions beyond the approved periods; the insistence of the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation on the implementation of the IPPIS (Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System) module in the polytechnic; the continued delay in the amendment of the Polytechnics’ Act; the review of the Polytechnics’ scheme of service; and the non- commencement of the re-negotiation of the Federal Government/ASUP Agreement.

    The country may be in for an impending strike as this time around, ASUP is resolute about not backing down until its demands are met. The Nation’s checks revealed that the strike is in effect in state and federal-owned polytechnics.

    When contacted, Mr Adimike George of the Public Relations Department, Federal Polytechnic, Oko, said there had been no academic activities at the institution since the strike began. He said that the Senior Staff Association Nigerian Polytechnics (SSANIP) of the polytechnic is also on strike. There have also been no classes at the Bauchi State Polytechnic, The Polytechnic, Ibadan, Federal Polytechnic, Offa, Lagos State Polytechnic, Yaba College of Technology, Abeokuta and many others.

    Speaking on the union’s stance last week in Abuja, National ASUP President, Chibuzor Asomugha, accused the government of “promoting dissection” in the education sub-sector by earmarking the lion’s share of the yearly education budget to universities at the expense of polytechnics and colleges of education. This imbalanced disbursement of funds, Asomugha argued, will continue to frustrate attempts at upgrading facilities in polytechnics, while creating a frightening gulf between universities and polytechnics/college of education graduates, resulting in inferiority complex of the latter.

    He said all tiers of government have refused to upgrade facilities at the polytechnics, while also ignoring the need to set up new ones in the face of technological gaps.

    “Regrettably, no sustained plan has been put in place to upgrade facilities in the existing polytechnics even when the need for setting up of new ones has not been considered as necessary for the technology development of Nigeria. In state-owned polytechnics, monotechnics and colleges of technologies, the picture is much more dismal, with minimal prospects for improvement as most authorities at that level have continued to gamble with the future of the youths of this country who have chosen to pursue careers in the technical sector,” he added.

    Of all the union’s demands Comrade Kadiri Kamoru Oluwatoyin, ASUP Chairman, FEDPOFFA and the Southwest Publicity Secretary, told The Nation that only one, the re-constitution of the governing council, has been met, and that, partially.

    “The strike is effective nationwide and it is biting harder on the government. There are 12 demands and only one out of the 12 has been partially met. When you look at the personalities on the governing council, they are 24/7 politicians. Some of them cannot even read or write; they require interpreters. But we demanded that academics should be among the governing council members before we went on the warning strike on April 22. The government has only reconstituted the council but done nothing about the members,” he said.

    Kamoru also wondered why the government is insisting on enforcing the IPPIS with polytechnic workers when it has been rejected by their university counterparts. If enforced, it would mean that the workers would be paid directly by the Accountant-General of the Federation rather than by their institutions.

    “University workers have rejected the IPPIS. We do not want it. We want the status quo to remain. If they implement it, it will not capture all our allowances. For instance, some entitled to hazard allowance, excess load allowance, will not get it. Also, those that go on Sabatical will not benefit from payment by the two institutions. We are happy with the way our salaries are being paid,” he said.

    ASUP National Vice President, Usman Yusuf Dutse told The Nation on Tuesday that the Federal Government has met with the union, promising to meet its demands that do not require legislation in three weeks.

    “Sometime last week, the Council of National Officers of ASUP had a meeting at the instance of the Minster of Labour and Productivity, Emeka Wogu, as an intervention. They have arrived at some level of commitment on the part of government. Government requested for three weeks to implement most of the issues. He said all the issues we raised that do not require legislation will be taken care of.

    The promise notwithstanding, Dutse said the strike would continue if its leaders are not convinced about the government’s sincerity.

    “The National Executive Committee (NEC) will deliberate on whether the commitment is strong enough before we take a decision to suspend the strike,” he said.

    Like ASUP, COEASU is accusing the federal and state governments of neglecting colleges of education which are saddled with the training of teachers for the primary and junior secondary education levels.

    At the Extended National Executive Council (ENEC) of the union at the Federal College of Education (Technical), Akoka, Yaba, Lagos last week, its National President Asagha Emmanuel Nkoro, berated government appointees many whom he said travel abroad but fail to replicate at home, what they see overseas.

    He warned that unless government changes its ways, kidnappings, robbery, insecurity and ritual killings, among others, will continue to dog the nation.

    “We want to also use this opportunity to warn the government. Their neglect of the sector particularly the so called less-privileged sector of the tertiary, secondary and primary education in the country is part of the strange situation and security challenges we are contending with which government has not been able to address, even after spending billions of naira,” he said.

    He lamented that the government naturally appears indifferent until the union is pressed to mount pressures on it.

    He said state-owned colleges in Osun, Kwara and Bauchi have not complied with the 65-year retirement age agreement. The schools, he added, also suffer infrastructural development particularly in Kwara.

    Asagha said the union would stop at nothing to compel states that are defaulting in developing their colleges of education.

    Their demands, some of which are similar to ASUP’s include: Forceful implementation of IPPIS; refusal of federal and state governments at all levels to implement terms of agreements regarding institutional structure and management and the conditions of service, appropriate salary structure and 65-year retirement age, especially by the governments of Kwara, Osun, and Plateau states; non-systemic approach in constituting the governing council; commencing a needs assessment exercise, amendments of the colleges system Act etc.

     

  • Don seeks return of teacher colleges

    Don seeks return of teacher colleges

    The Dean of the Faculty of Education, University of Ibadan, Prof Clement Olaniran Kolawole, is seeking the re-introduction of teacher training colleges.

    The professor of Language Education also canvassed for Education to be extended to a five year course in the university.

    Delivering the maiden Faculty of Education Lecture of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, entitled: Imperatives for quality and quantity in teacher preparation for the 21st Century Educational Institutions in Nigeria, Kolawole, advised that course content for producing teachers should be the same.

    “There is an urgent need to harmonise all the academic content and professional teaching practice of all the programmes being used in teacher preparation programmes in Nigeria to promote uniformity of content and the practical aspects of the programmes.

    “To facilitate this, the bachelor’s programme in education should now become five years so that four years can be used to expose the students to adequate content knowledge while the fifth year will be devoted exclusively to professional practice,” he said.

    Kolawole also called for the re-establishment of the Grade II Teachers Colleges, which were abolished decades back, to replace the programmes being run by the National Teachers Institute.

    He said: “The intensity of the training and the depth of the physical, mental, moral and academic exposure at the Teachers Grade II programme is incomparable with what both the National Teachers Institute and the colleges of education carry out today in their teacher education programmes.”

    Kolawole recommended that Teachers Grade II colleges be made the starting point for the training of teachers for other higher levels in the country.

     

  • Jonathan approves recruitment of teachers for Federal Unity Colleges

    Jonathan approves recruitment of teachers for Federal Unity Colleges

    President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the recruitment of 1000 English and Mathematics teachers for the nation’s 104 Federal Government Colleges.

    Minister of State for Education, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike dropped the hint yesterday in Abuja at the openning of the first phase of the continuous professional development programme for Mathematics and English Language Teachers in the Federal Government Colleges.

    The Federal Ministry of Education is training 144 Mathematics and English Language teachers in inclusive teaching approach.

    Wike said that the Presidential approval was aimed at improving the quality of education offered by the Federal Government Colleges.

    He said: “Though, every subject is important, you all know that Mathematics and English Language occupy a special place in the nation’s education system because of their relative importance.

    “Arguably, across every career and every discipline, the relevance of Mathematics and English Language is self evident and will only continue to grow. This is why as a matter of national policy, these subjects remain compulsory.”

    He regretted the poor performance of students in the two core subjects, pointing out that the ministry was determined to address the situation.

    Wike said: “I need not over-emphasise the fact that the quality of the teacher is the most important factor that determines students’ achievements in the school system.

    “There is no way effective teaching can take place without the teacher having a deeper understanding of the subject matter, the confidence, as well as the aptitude to effectively teach the subject matter to students.”

    He noted that to achieve the desired result and concentration on the part of teachers, the two-week workshop is residential for all participants.

    In his remark, the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Dr MacJohn Nwaobiala, decried the student-teacher ratio of 1:350 students in Mathematics and English Language.

    Prof. Adewale Solarin, the Chief Executive of National Mathematical Centre (NMC), attributed the failures in Mathematics and English Language during public examinations to the dearth of qualified teachers.

    Coordinator of the workshop and director of Basic and Secondary Education in the Ministry. Chike Uwaezuoke said that the approval was the first time in 15years that English Language teachers of Federal Government Colleges have been involved in capacity building.

     

  • Challenges before ABU’s Agric Colleges

    Challenges before ABU’s Agric Colleges

    Ahmadu Bello University is 50 years old this year and has just celebrated this epoch-making Golden Jubilee. One of the important divisions of the University is the Division of Agricultural Colleges which controls and manages the three Colleges of Agriculture of the University in Kabba, Samaru and Mando road, Kaduna. The Colleges were originally mandated to train middle level manpower called Agricultural Assistants and Field Assistants in Livestock Management.

    While the Samaru College started formerly as School of Agriculture in 1932 with some 17 students specialising in Grains and Legumes, the Livestock Services Training Centre at Mando Road, Kaduna started operation in 1951 and the Kabba College started also as School of Agriculture with its first intake of students in April 1964, specialising in Tree Crops and Horticulture.

    By Decree No 26 of June 1, 1971 (Ahmadu Bello University Law Amendment Decree), Kabba School of Agriculture together with Samaru School of Agriculture and the Livestock Training Centre at Mando Road, Kaduna, were brought under the Division of Agriculture and Livestock Service Training of the Ahmadu Bello University with its own Director.

    As the various Schools/Colleges of Agriculture were given their mandates, they went about teaching and training thousands of young Secondary School leavers and some older ones from farm centres to acquire the necessary tools and knowledge expected of them in their new career; especially in crop production, animal husbandry, survey, engineering, extension, science and others.

    In years gone by, students were well trained to be generalists by very dedicated teachers, to pass on their acquired knowledge and skills to farmers, as their curricula covered almost every aspect of agriculture needed by the huge Northern Nigeria. As middle level workers, they therefore filled the wide gap between the farming communities and the policy makers. There is no doubt that the same tradition has continued except that there are now greater choices of areas of specialisation, from Pre-ND to National Diploma and to Higher National Diploma in Agricultural Technology, Engineering, Home Economics, Farm Power and Machinery, Irrigation Agronomy, Agric Extension and Management, General Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal Production and Health Technology, and others.

    Thanks to the Colleges of Agriculture which have graduated thousands of general and specialised agriculturists, employed in many parts of the country, the population of Nigeria has been increasing, particularly in the North, rather than decreasing because these well trained agriculturists have contributed their services towards agricultural production, both in quantity and in quality to stem hunger.

    The nation is now blessed with an agriculturist as the Minister of Agriculture in the person of Dr. Akinwumi Ayodeji Adesina (triple A), who is looking inward in making Nigerians believe in themselves, in producing enough food to feed themselves and have surplus for export, through the beacon he has lit by the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) of President Goodluck Jonathan, which every state and local government should key into and emulate. It is expected that the Division of Agricultural Colleges, ABU should be the reservoir of the army of the middle-level and higher level manpower needed as foot soldiers for the country’s agricultural transformation agenda, especially, in the northern states. Consequently, the Minister of Agriculture should be a friend of the Division of Agricultural Colleges and should give, not only the necessary but sufficient financial and moral support to DACs; by galvanising the total support of Mr. President and governors to mobilise funds, material and human capital for DACs, ABU.

    It is quite fascinating to know that many alumni, including the writer, who left the agricultural sector, for other pursuits, have, on retirement, returned to invest in agriculture, empowering young people with wages and salaries earned from employing them; thus contributing to food security, reducing unemployment and Nigeria’s dependence on food importation. The Colleges of Agriculture should be commended for grooming and inspiring these alumni to believe that there is no alternative to food production to conquer hunger, reduce unemployment and improve the standard of living of the people of Nigeria.

    Current and future challenges before the Agricultural Colleges of Ahmadu Bello University are enormous as they require the where-withal to surmount them.

    First, they require adequate funding in order to do the following, among others:-

    • Retain the best lecturers/staff

    •Employ new ones who are well qualified and interested in the job.

    •Provide adequate facilities to meet the teaching requirements.

    •Expand their curricula to meet the demands of Nigerians, especially in the North, such as irrigation, fishery, high quality livestock for quality meat, milk and top class semen for artificial insemination.

    •Provide scholarship to lecturers and students to overseas institutions, especially those with ecosystem similar to Nigeria, in order to acquire modern knowledge or state of the art skills and exposure to be imparted on Nigerian Farmers.

    Second, special challenges continuously confronting the Agricultural Colleges of Northern Nigeria are the negative effects of drought and the spread of the Sahara Desert over the North, with their attendant reduction in arable land and yields, including the displacement of farming communities and livestock. Specialists in this field may have to be recruited by DACS so that their knowledge and experience in combating the spread of the Sahara Desert can be acquired and imparted on students of DACS.

    A lot can be learnt from experiences of neighboring ECOWAS countries like Mali, Burkina Faso, and also from Saudi Arabia, Israel and Australia. These countries virtually live in desert areas and are surviving.

    Though a lot of efforts, such as tree planting, have been exerted by governments of northern states particularly, the far North, much more efforts in the area of research and acquisition of appropriate knowledge or technology from relevant countries and international organisations, like the United Nations and, its specialised agencies, are still needed, as the Sahara Desert continues to spread southwards from the fringes of the North.

    Third, another challenge for the agricultural colleges is the heavy burden of climate change causing drought, and very high temperature/global warming in many areas, and heavy rainfall and floods in some other areas, as currently being experienced this year in particular, at unexpected time of the year. This phenomenon creates challenges to students of agricultural colleges, to their lecturers, and most specially, to farmers whose templates regarding timeline for different farm operations are distorted. The issue involved is to device an adjustment mechanism to adapt to climate change. What the Division of Agricultural Colleges should do is to set up a satellite liaison unit that links the division with specific organisations or institutions, with the aim of sharing valuable and useful information that would be helpful to farmers in the northern states, in particular, and the country in general, so as to obtain more reliable forecast of the weather.

    Information from these various organisations and institutions should be collated, examined by the Division of Agricultural Colleges staff and students and thereafter, disseminate same on daily basis to agricultural ministries to inform, warn and advise farming communities accordingly.

  • Govt to punish truant teachers at unity colleges

    Govt to punish truant teachers at unity colleges

    The Minister of State for Education, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, has declared strict disciplinary measures will be taken against teachers and administrators of Federal unity colleges who play truancy.

    The Minister spoke in Owerri while paying an unscheduled visit to Federal Government Girls College, Owerri. He noted that the ministry was committed to curbing indiscipline amongst staff of the schools.

    Wike was visibly disturbed by the absence of teachers in most classes that he visited in the school. He randomly visited five classes cutting across the different arms of the school, without finding classroom teachers in four classes, even though they had scheduled classes on their time-table.

    He said: “We will not allow a situation where teachers and administrators are not at their duty posts. These teachers are paid as at when due and the Nigerian child must get value for the investment of government.

    “More heads will roll. We will not tolerate any form of truancy and lack of commitment to duty on the part of teachers and administrators of Federal Unity Colleges”.

    He directed the director, basic and secondary education, to issue query letters to the absentee teachers.

    He also summoned the principal to Abuja to explain why she was not in the school at the time of the visit.

    Wike inspected the library project being constructed for the Junior Secondary School of the school. He charged the contractor to maintain the tempo and work in line with approved specifications.