Corona College tasks FG on funding, graduates 155 students

Raises bar in value driven education system

Corona College of Education (CCED) Lagos has reiterated its commitment to ensuring a value and technological driven education system to further contribute its quota to the development of the nation’s education sector.

This is as the school confirmed that a total of 155 students of the Corona College of Education (CCED) Lagos were conferred with various certificates for the 2019/2020 academic session.

The Provost of the college, Dr. Olajumoke Mekiliuwa, disclosed this at the third convocation ceremony and lecture, which also doubled as the second in the series of public lectures organised by the institution.

Themed ‘Town and Gown Synergy: Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice Towards a sustainable Society’, the lecture had Prof. Enase Okonedo, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Pan Atlantic University as the Guest Lecturer and other stakeholders in the education sector, who believe that there is need for support for the sector.

According to stakeholders who spoke at the lecture, the issue of funding is a major one whether for the private or public institutions in Nigeria and government need to do serious intervention in the system.

Okonedo also noted that it is imperative for African ivory towers to focus on values and re-think how to come out with a practical solution to society issues and not just teach students.

She also identified key skills that employers are looking for in graduates which include communication, problem solving, creativity, adaptability and inquiry, among others.

The don called on the federal government and various institutions of learning to ensure service learning and service provision be inculcated in curriculum.

Earlier in her welcome address, Corona College Education Provost, Mekiliuwa said the lecture has also revealed to the graduating students that beyond the knowledge and the skills they have acquired in the class room, there are skills that employers are looking out for in them.

Expressing her dissatisfaction with current educational funding in Nigeria, Mekiliuwa noted that things could be better, as the country still falls short of UNESCO standards.

She said the lecture becomes imperative to establish an academic tradition for the college in the dissemination of information and knowledge and to generate discourses around pertinent issues in education with the effect of galvanising sustainable change in tertiary education in Nigeria today.

According to her, the topic for the lecture was carefully crafted to capture the concerns of stakeholders on the skills deficit observable in today’s graduates arising from the yarning gap between curricula offerings in the nation’s higher education institutions and industry needs.

Mekiliuwa said end users of products from education system have often raised concerns at the employability of graduates from tertiary institutions, saying this reveals the disparity between what is taught in the curriculum and the skills that are needed outside there.

She maintained that the college is committed to its vision and mission of being the best provider of teacher education in Nigeria with premium quality and standards for the training of globally competitive graduates and confirms it provides world class teacher education founded on ethical values and professionalism for self-actualization and service to humanity.

Speaking further, she maintained that the lecture avails the graduating students opportunity to know that they need to build competences, skills, adaptability, creativity into themselves and go out there to make a change in the schools they are teachers.

“The issue of funding is a major one whether for the private or public institutions. Funding will help to improve tremendously what we do in education. We are far below the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNINESCO) standard and we think more funding will help,” she said

At convocation ceremony, the College is presented 155 students for the award of certificates, diplomas and prizes, representing, 117 in Professional Diploma in Education, 2 in Nigeria Certificate in Education and 36 in Advanced Diploma in Early Childhood Care and Education.
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The Provost congratulated the graduates, urging them to be agents of change, light-bearers, solution providers and pathfinders in confronting the numerous challenges bedeviling the nation’s education system.

Also in his address, CCED Chairman, Mr. Adedotun Sulaiman, represented by Mrs. Sade Odunaiya, affirmed that the school was created to explore and exploit possibilities to build teacher’s capacity and for continuous professional development of teachers.