The Minister of Education, Dr Olatunji Alausa, and former Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari, are among other eminent Nigerians who would be honoured today at the convocation ceremony and 50th anniversary of the Federal College of Education (FCE) Abeokuta, Ogun State, for their contributions to the development of the institution.

According to the institution, its Information and Communications Technology (ICT) building is expected to be named after Alausa, while Masari will be honoured with an Honorary Fellowship of the College, among other awardees.

Meanwhile, Provost of the College, Dr Rafiu Soyele, has lauded the Federal Government’s (FG) policy allowing concurrent running of Nigerian Certificate in Education (NCE) and degree programmes by selected Colleges of Education in the country, noting that the policy was a pragmatic, cost-effective, mutually and doubly beneficial to the government, the institutions students and the Nigerian public.

Explaining further, Soyele noted that the move was for the government to use one stone to kill two birds, by using the same human resources and infrastructure to run both programmes.

He said students in the NCE programme would find it more expedient and at reduced cost to run their degree programmes after the completion of their NCE programme.

He further said that running the programmes simultaneously could easily give a moral boost and a challenge to NCE graduates to return much earlier to conclude their degree programmes.

Underscoring the significance of NCE, while applauding the government for not phasing it out, the educationist argued that products of the programme were still highly relevant to a successful implementation and attainment of the goal and objectives of the country’s educational policy, especially at the primary and junior secondary school levels.