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Plans by COEs to award degrees boosts enrolment figures

By Bridget Chiedu Onochie, Abuja
18 March 2015   |   11:00 pm
What our people are looking for by going to other countries is good education, and that is happening here now. Other nations are even commending our strides in developing this sector.
Pupils of Gift Jewels International School, Lagos, doing Ekombi dance from Cross River State, during the school’s 2015 Cultural Day cele

Pupils of Gift Jewels International School, Lagos, doing Ekombi dance from Cross River State, during the school’s 2015 Cultural Day cele

Plans by colleges of education in the country to award degrees has driven up enrolment figures in these institutions round the country, so says the Chairman, Committee of Chairmen of Governing Councils of Federal Colleges of Education, Senator Emmanuel O. Anosike.

Anosike had at a recent meeting of the group revealed that colleges of education in the country will soon commence the award of degrees to its students, a development he noted, would ensure the promotion of academic staff of these institutions up to professorial level.

The committee chairman who said the bolstered enrolment figures could be attributed to the fact that graduates of such institutions would be awarded double honours, added that most of the institutions were already awarding degrees of universities to which they are affiliated.

According to him, the move to award degrees by colleges of education was influenced by the plan to make first degree the minimum qualification for teaching in Nigeria.

More lecturers in the COEs are also being sponsored by the Federal Government, through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).

“Alvan Ikoku College of Education has 160 PhD holders while some universities have only 50. The school also has 16, 000 students, Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo, also has 16, 000 students”, Anosike said.

He stated that the committee has been working closely with unions in the sub-sector to ensure that the agreement signed with government was implemented.

He disclosed that the NEEDS Assessment report of COEs were being implemented, and this informed infrastructural upgrading across these institutions.

“Lectures therefore no longer hold lectures in school sport centers or chapels as has happened in the past. There have been no threats of strike by unions in the colleges of education because we are working closely with them to ensure that the sector is revamped. We as chairmen have decided that there would be no strikes and so we work with them,” he said.

Anosike lauded the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, which he claimed, has kept faith with its promises to Nigerians in all sectors including the education sector.

“What our people are looking for by going to other countries is good education, and that is happening here now. Other nations are even commending our strides in developing this sector.”

He added that there has been no discrimination in attending to the needs of the colleges of education as both federal and state institutions were being rehabilitated across the country.

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