What is delaying Kaduna College from awarding degree – Provost
What has been your experience in the last two years?The interesting thing about my appointment is that I have been an insider at the college for almost 20 years as a lecture, who has grown in the academic cadre before eventually getting the appointment as the acting provost. But the academic field differs from the […]
What has been your experience in the last two years?
The interesting thing about my appointment is that I have been an insider at the college for almost 20 years as a lecture, who has grown in the academic cadre before eventually getting the appointment as the acting provost. But the academic field differs from the administration. In carrying out your functions, you need to delegate some to others. If you work with people as a team, they would know where you are going. I’ve found myself working amidst men but, that notwithstanding, it is a system and people need to stand up to the vision of the system, and work together as a team and ensure that the system survives. When I came on board, my predecessor then, who is now the Chairman of SUBEB, Mr Ishaya Dare Akau, has already set machinery on the ground for ensuring positive changes, improving facilities as well as getting students and staff to be on their feet in carrying out their duties. So, the stage was already set before my arrival and when I came, it was a sort of continuity with the dreams and visions of the school. Basically, in regard to our mandate, which is to produce quality teachers to man our primary and junior secondary schools, we’ve been working hard toward achieving our goals.
What are your plans for the college?
My desire has always been to have a conducive learning environment, qualified and able hands to deliver, as well as have a disciplined crop of students. As a teacher training institution and for someone to teach another person, he or she should be an individual that is morally upward, disciplined, and conscious of his responsibility in the development of human beings. Therefore, my plan is to produce good products.
There were issues of fake certificates emanating from the college, what is the situation now?
The immediate past provost was able to nip the issue in the bud and so, when I came on board, those bad eggs were fished out and their appointments were terminated. Once we discovered somebody has some traces of behavior that will not promote the quality of our teachers, we will not hesitate to sack such personnel. Some staffers that were found wanting, have been relieved of their appointments and any teacher found to be wanting in the future will face similar punishment.
This college has experienced infrastructural decay since its establishment in 1977, what are you doing to balance the deficit?
If you go round the college, you will see a lot of changes. We’ve been able to access the accumulated un-accessed TET fund of 2010, 2011 and 2012. A lot of works are going on in the college to improve the facilities. When I started, I ensured that the estate department works closely with us to ensure proper renovation of structures. We have renovated a lot of staff offices, including seven blocks of classrooms. This has enhanced the atmosphere for academic excellence.
Some colleges of education in the country that come after yours will start awarding degrees certificates. What is delaying you from doing so?
When I came on board in 2012, my first wish was to pursue, passionately, this issue of getting the institution to be awarding degree. We set in machinery and liaised with ABU Zaria and a team of experts visited the institution on assessment of facilities and staff to see the possibility of starting the B. Ed programme. In fact, if it wasn’t for the ASUU strike that lingered for about five months, we would have begun the B.Ed programme in 2013/2014 academic year. We are still pursuing that and the university has to get clearance from the NUC. But on our own part, areas of lapses that were observed such as the standard of the library have been addressed. Presently, the state government has approved the renovation of the library at the permanent site in Gidan- Waya and TET fund intervention has also given us an opportunity to upgrade the library to a higher standard. Particularly, we lay emphasis on the establishment of the e- library which we will passionately pursue. And, I am sure very soon, we will get feedback from ABU-Zaria. If there is a landmark I desire to leave behind, is to get the B. Ed programme to begin. If it were to be something within my capacity, in this short time, the B.Ed programme would have begun. It’s a process that has to be followed. Like I earlier told you, if not for the ASUU strike, our issue was already in the senate of ABU Zaria.
What programme do you intend to start with?
Well, we made proposal to them, we will only serve as a centre and provide manpower to run the programme. But programmes that border on education such as B. Ed language, such as English, Hausa, B.Ed physical health education, B.Ed social studies, home economics, and other related courses, depending on where the university will want us to start from. It’s not something we will start in a wholesome, normally, there are few programmes you have to start with and as time progresses, you expand.
Do you intend to introduce new programmes at NCE level?
Presently, we run about 30 programmes in the institution and you know that we have the National Commission for Colleges of Education that brings minimum standard for the regulation of all programmes at the institution. For now, we are emphasising on the early child education and primary education studies which we just upgraded from a departmental level to an independent school. This is the area of emphasis now in the colleges of education in order to enable us to achieve our mandate of producing teachers that are qualified to handle primary education in the country. We are working on producing teachers that will be able to carry out their mandate appropriately.