It was a giant leap for College of Dental Technology and Therapy, Enugu as the long time Bill put forward by the school to move from awarding Diploma to degree awarding college was passed into law by President Mohammadu Buhari. The College no doubt is posed to meet up with the task ahead as the management of the school recently held a two-day retreat to review performance and trends as well as agree on plans to improve institutional performance, Omolara Akintoye reports
Since its inception over 60 years ago, the Federal College of Dental Technology and Therapy, Enugu was established to provide for the training
of Dental Technologists and therapists and has also served as the only training school for these categories of health workers. The College which has played host to cream of students from all parts of Africa ever since it got accreditation by the National board of Technical Education (NBTE) for
the award of Higher National Diploma, until this month when President Mohammadu Buhari pass the bill into law for the school so start awarding
degrees. At a two-day strategic management retreat held this week at Sheraton Hotel, Lagos, it was an opportunity for the management of the school to review performance and trends as well as discuss and agree on action plans to improve institutional performance.
The retreat according to the Rector, Federal College of Dental Technology, Dr. John Emaimo is that is offers opportunity for the management to stand
back and clarify where to go as leaders. “Indeed by being detached from our work-day environment, this retreat provides the space and support to let us rethink about our activities and recharge our batteries. Retreats provide new insight and a refresher in the latest global trends and developments”, he said. According to him, an intense interaction with other stakeholders from other institutions forms another important element.
Speaking further, Emaimo pointed out that beginning from the next academic session in 2018, new intakes will now bag degree in their different courses rather than Higher National Diploma. “This will be a boost for the institution as most major courses such as Dental Technology, Dental
Therapy, Bio-Medical Engineering, Dental Nursing, among others, sad to say, are not studied in Nigerian Universities, but rather, in the College, our students will no longer encounter certificate discrepancies in the labour market. Come the next academic session, our students will now be able to compete favorably with their counterparts in the labour market”, he said.
On her parts, the Acting Registrar of the College, Mrs. Chukwu Angela, the retreat was can help top executive management to develop new strategic
initiatives to tackle institutional transformations.
“This is why professional facilitators from outside the institution have been engaged to give professional insights into the strategic realignment
of the administrative and institutional processes, said Chukwu. Responding on whether the College is ready to surmount the task ahead, Angela said the fact that the College is the only federal government owned institution at the moment in Africa that trains dental technologists and therapists. Her words, It is a premier dental school in Africa which has its record of training dental technologists and therapists in Africa. The College has all the necessary facilities and capable team who have all it takes for it college to compete favourably”, she said.
While decrying the state of dental health in the country, the Resource person who is also an Epidemiologist/Strategic Information Manager, and
lecturer College of Medicine, University of Maryland, Abuja, Nigeria, Dr (Mrs.) Winifred Ukponu, said with new status of the college as well as the
steps taking by the management of the college to equip itself for the challenges ahead, the problem of oral care should be a thing of the past.
Ukponu also enjoined oral experts also known as dentist to be accessible to the average man on the street.
She said, “The private dentist should be very accessible to the average man on the street. People see dental practice as expensive because they don’t have access to it. They don’t even know that they should go to a dentist and not general hospital when they have tooth ache.
“That is why professional facilitators from outside the institution have been engaged to give professional insights into the strategic realignment
of the administrative and institutional processes” she concluded
