By Adebayo Olodan
Preparation is in top gear to receive officials of National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) for approval of 30 courses at the Kwara State College of Education, Ilorin.
The disclosure was made by the Provost of the institution, Dr Isiaka Saka Opobiyi, while speaking with newsmen in his office, yesterday.
According to him, the college is long overdue for another accreditation as the last exercise took place in 2004 with about 25 courses approved then.
“We are expecting officials of National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) for another round of accreditation for all our courses as a means of checking the standard in our institution.
“The accreditation will start with Professional Diploma in Education (PDE) from 31st of July, thereafter the full accreditation of our NCE programmes will take place from 6th to 11th of August,” he added.
Opobiyi further stated that the college has communicated the development to the state government and the Governing Council of the institution adding that both teaching and non academic staff will leave no stone unturned towards the success of the exercise.
The provost also disclosed that the college is anticipating another accreditation of its regular degree programmes in conjunction with Ekiti State University (EKSU).
“We earlier had resource visitation by EKSU officials to the college and this has made all our staff both academic and non-teaching staff to put in extra shift towards the accreditation success.
“It may interest you to know that the college hosted the Executive Secretary of NCCE, Prof. Bappa-Aliyu Muhammadu, on a one-day official visit, last week. He inspected specific infrastructure such as the multi-media laboratory built by the Federal Government and the Computer and Information Technology Centre.”
Opobiyi said but for the financial challenges, the courses of the college should have witnessed another round of accreditation in 2009.
He acknowledged the support of the state government to the institution but called for more in the area of facilities and welfare of staff to prevent brain drain as the college presently boasts of the most qualified and committed set of lecturers and non-academic staff in this part of the country.
“You know most of our infrastructures need to be renovated from concurrently because of wear and tear and the fact that there is an increase in enrolment compared to when we started in 1974.
“Also, we need the huge support of government to be able to retain our lecturers because some of them ended up leaving for greener pastures after the college may have sponsored them for their Masters and Ph.D programmes.
“It is important we have our best brains around to ensure qualitative education and for the college to retain its status as a leading light in terms of training of teachers in the country as we are the first established state-owned College of Education in Nigeria,” he pleaded.
