Comrade Sam Akindele is a former national president of the College of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU). In this interview with ADEGUNLE OLUGBAMILA, Akindele traces the agitation by the union for the upgrading of the four federal colleges of education to universities, which the Federal Government approved last week. He talks about its implication, particularly to his colleagues, as well as the need to allow certain colleges with strong faculties be degree-awarding institutions without changing their status.
That is your take on the four federal colleges of education that government upgraded to universities last week?
Actually, our regime started the agitation for that conversion. We were initially complaining about marginalisation (in colleges) because we realised we had more students in colleges, so we felt we needed some universities of education. We also agitated that some of our colleges with facilties and personnel should award degrees.
We decided to start by first identifying with the foremost colleges of education – Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo (now Adeyemi University of Education, Ondo); Federal College of Education, Zaria (now Federal University of Education, Zaria); Federal College of Education, Kano (now Federal University of Education, Kano); and Alvan Ikoku College of Education, Owerri (now Alvan Ikoku University of Education, Owerri). You will also realise that for years, these four institutions have been awarding degrees in education in affiliation with federal universities. So, we believe that the government’s action is in the right direction and we also see this gesture as the fruits of what we laboured for nearly two decades ago.
But some said this mere change of name is simply on the surface and that those colleges would have remained because they are not matured enough to be universities?
I disagree. Let me correct an impression. I had the opportunity to visit the National Assembly during my tenure, and I presented to members of the House statistics backing our claim. As at then, ACE had 62 PhD holders, while Alfan Ikoku had 57. Even state colleges like AOCOED (Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education) then had 47 and I understand they have about 87 today. Don’t also forget that as at then, a Masters degree was the minimum qualification to teach in colleges of education.
But don’t you think this dichotomy among universities, polytechnics and colleges will affect the colleges’ new status?
In all sincerity, I want to recall that during our agitation, we actually did not say those colleges be upgraded to universities. Leave them as they are, but let them be able to award degrees without affiliation with any university. But in this part of the world, we are so addicted to nomenclature. We believe for those colleges to be autonomous degree-awarding institutions, they must be turned into universities. In some foreign countries and even in Ghana, there are degree-awarding colleges of education. But here, you don’t treasure the product until we say ‘this is from a university.’
But do you share the belief by the government that the nation still lacks adequate teachers and the idea is to boost teachers production?
That’s a big question! Today, there are many teachers without jobs. In some other parts of the country like the North, there are not enough teachers, so they recruit teachers on contract. In the South, it appears we teachers are in surplus. But that reality is only in the urban areas because when you go to rural areas, teachers are equally inadequate. But the issue of quality is another thing. As a teacher, I’ve lectured for 28 years and I can compare those students that have passed under me. In those days, we used to have Grade 2, which was later scrapped. The good thing about Grade 2 is that it produced more matured and trainable students. Unfortunately, the students we have today do not have the passion for teaching. It might interest you to know that many of them end up in colleges of education because they were denied admission from universities.
What challenges will the new status of these institutions have particularly on teachers. Don’t you think professors from other universities will be recruited to eat what they had laboured for?
Well, challenges are a little enormous. In colleges, we do not have professorial chairs. Even with your PhD, the highest you can get to is Chief Lecturer.But let them follow Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUED) example, which was a college but was later upgraded by the Ogun State government.When TASUED was upgraded, some professors were recruited from other universities on contract to man certain key positions for about two years. Within that period, teachers who were already in the system were asked to submit their papers for reassessment. I understand five of them that met the standard were given professorial status. Also, within two years, other teachers who were also due for professorial status were accorded accordingly. By then, those professors on contract would have been done with their assignments and returned to their former duty posts.
