Colleges of Education yet to get capital
votes
By Fabian Ozor,
Senior
Correspondent, Lagos
Contrary to claims
by the Federal Government that it has released money for capital projects to
all tertiary institutions in the country,
Colleges of Education are yet to receive funds for such projects since
three years.
The Provost of the
Federal College of Education (Technological), Akoka, Lagos, Dr. Kinsley
Sowande, disclosed this on Tuesday while welcoming a five-man visitation panel
to the institution.
The Federal
Government recently set up visitation panels to visit all its owned tertiary
institutions to determine the state of the schools and recommend to government
ways of improving or sanitising them.
Sowande told the
panel that non-release of funds for the development of teacher education and
the expansion of programmes in the school was retarding development, saying the
college, which is 37 years old, has no standard library.
The provost, who
solicited for the upgrading of the college to a degree awarding institution in education,
said it has the manpower to achieve this as it had over the years trained
teachers who have proved themselves in the profession.
The Chairman of the
panel, Alhaji Ibrahim Abdullahi, told the staff and students of the college
that the exercise was not a witch hunting forum, neither was it intended to be
for mudslinging or an excuse for wasting public funds but that it was a fact
finding exercise.
He disclosed that
the last visitation panel set up by the government was in 1998 and that to
avoid backlog, the government decided to set up the panels, which would cover
five years, 1999 to 2004.
Abdullahi, who is a
retired director in the office of the vice-president, listed their terms of
reference as to determine the relationship between the minister and the various
statutory bodies it interacts with according to the law for purpose of
supervision, planning, finance, discipline.
Others include to
look into the leadership quality of council and management, examine the
financial management of the school to see if it complied with the regulations,
to investigate the application of funds especially capital projects and suggest
possible modification of the laws establishing the school to let the school
achieve desired objectives.
The panel is also
to study the general atmosphere of the school with reference to conduct of
staff and students as well as the relationship between the school and host
communities, examine all the academic programmes, policies and practices as
well as physical development of the school.
He solicited the
support of both staff and students of the college and urged them to submit
memorandum to the panel.
