23rd June, 2017
Prof. Emmanuel Chom, Administrator, Kaduna State College of Education, Gidan Waya has said that the dearth of lecturers and poor infrastructure was frustrating efforts to accredit many programmes.
“The college is faced with a huge infrastructural gap and inadequate lecturers; that situation is affecting our efforts to secure accreditation for many of the courses,” Chom said on Thursday in Kafanchan, at the inauguration of the renovated Staff School of the institution.
The inauguration was performed by Prof. Andrew Nok, the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology.
Chom regretted that most of the buildings were dilapidated, adding that office accommodation was also inadequate.
“Another worry is that most of the equipment and machines, especially for vocational and technical education programmes, are obsolete.
“Laboratories are also inadequate with the few available poorly equipped,” he said.
Fom said that the “bad situation” in the college was responsible for the migration of senior lecturers to other schools, and urged government to address the issues.
“The school is mandated to develop manpower for the education sector. We cannot do that if we are not equipped,” he said.
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Also speaking, Mr Noah Danlami, Chairman of the institution’s chapter of the College of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), said that some secondary schools were better equipped than the college in terms of infrastructure.
“We want the state government to meet up with strategic and critical needs of the college, especially infrastructure, manpower and other facilities.
“This must be addressed within the shortest possible time because the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) accreditation team will soon visit the college,” Danlami said.
He called for the immediate reopening of the college, pointing out that peace had returned to the area.
Also speaking, the Emir of Jema’a, Alhaji Isa Mohammed, appealed to government to reopen all schools closed down in the southern part of the state in 2016 over security reasons.
“There is now peace in the area; schools should be reopened in the interest of the students,” he said.
Responding, Nok said that issues affecting the college would soon be addressed to facilitate the accreditation of programmes and provide a proper environment for learning.
He challenged the lecturers to intensify academic researches so as to attract research grants to the college, and promised that the college, Kafanchan campus of the state university and the College of Nursing, Kafanchan, would be reopened “soon”.