Edo varsity acquires first rate facilities, staff

The Edo University, Iyamho, Edo State, has improved its College of Medical Sciences barely three years into its existence, as it has acquired modern facilities needed to train the students. In 2016, the college admitted its first set of students who are now in 300 Level. Our correspondent gathered that within that short period, the […]

The Edo University, Iyamho, Edo State, has improved its College of Medical Sciences barely three years into its existence, as it has acquired modern facilities needed to train the students.

In 2016, the college admitted its first set of students who are now in 300 Level.

Our correspondent gathered that within that short period, the department has acquired the anatomage machine, becoming one among the first medical schools in Nigeria and sub-Sahara Africa to have it for the training of students.

It was also gathered that the college has quite a number of qualified lecturers, including more than four professors. It has a professor of nursing; nursing professors are considered rare in Nigeria as there are only about 20.

Speaking on the readiness of the college to provide quality services, its Provost, Prof. Olusegun Akinyinka, told Daily Trust that the school strictly adhered to the minimum standard prescribed by the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN).

Prof. Akinyinka said, “The college will be having its first professional examination this year and our intention is that students won’t spend one day extra in school. For now, we have been given a prescription of 50 students by MDCN and we are working with that prescription.

“When starting medicine, you don’t start big, so we started with what we considered to be reasonable. The council’s officials were here in September, 2018 and on February 11, 2019, and they assured us that we are within the infrastructural needs that will cater for the numbers.”

The professor noted that the college was one of the most enhanced colleges of medical sciences in the country.

“We have invested heavily in technology, and one of that is the anatomage machine. It is the most enhanced technologically advanced teaching aids for anatomy in the world. It teaches anatomy in several dimensions, with massive clinical pathology collection. I believe we are the only institution that have it in the country, and second or third in Sub-Saharan Africa to have the teaching aid,” he said.

He further said the college was leveraging on technology in the teaching of students to enhance the normal traditional method of teaching anatomy, physiology, among others.

Akinyinka explained that, “At the moment, the state governor is working on our teaching hospital, but by July, after our medical examination, we will be  using the Stella Obasanjo and the Central hospitals in Benin, with which we have already signed an MOU, superintended by the Hospitals Management Board and the Ministry of Justice, but when our teaching hospital is completed, we hope to offer healthcare that most teaching hospitals don’t offer, like liver transplantation, which no one is doing in the country.

“We are working towards being the best teaching hospital in the country. We are running competency-based curriculum and we are the third institution to run it in this country. This envisages the competency of a doctor as defined by knowledge, skill, attitude and values as they help to define the quality of a graduate.”

Apart from the Professor of Nursing, the college also has a Professor of Chemical Pathology, a Professor of Laboratory Science, and an Associate Professor of Hematology.

“I am a Professor of Paediatric and also a PhD holder in Clinical Pharmacology. So we go round searching for quality lecturers to ensure that we deliver quality education to the satisfaction of the national healthcare and the community that we serve,” Akinyinka said.