They Federal Government has been lauded for its adroit funding of education in the nation's tertiary institutions despite the harsh economic milieu of the country.
The Provost, Federal College of Education, Osiele, Abeokuta, Dr. Rafiu Soyele gave the commendation on Monday at a press conference to announce the programs lined up to celebrate the 25th Convocation Ceremony and 48th Founding Day Anniversary of the school.
According to Dr, Soyele: "The government is really trying, the government is doing a lot, paying our salaries and you can see lots of development and iconic structures built with TETFund"
“Many of our lecturers have their Master’s and Ph.D. degrees with support from TETFund. In fact, many of our higher institutions of learning would have gone into extinction without TETFund’s support", he said.
He however noted that the prevailing economic situation in the country called for the judicious deployment of whatever resources we have to ensure that no area suffers which he said necessitated a combined convocations which also cost a bit of funds.
The provost called attention to another challenge peculiar to Colleges of Education across the country which he said is the "considerable drop in the number of students applying to study for NCE.”
Soyele said this has been making people call for the scrapping of Colleges of Education.
He said this call was unnecessary as it would leave in ruins and waste all that the state and the Federal Government have invested in human and capital as well as infrastructural development.
Dr. Soyele announced that a total of 6,444 students would be graduating from the school during its 25th combined convocations slated for this Thursday.
He said that 13 of the graduands made distinctions, 11 of them equally had credits while the rest would graduate on merit.
The combined convocations catered for four academic sessions of 2018/2019, 2019/2020, 2020/2021 and 2021/2022.
The provost declared that the delay in convocation, even though many of the graduates had already received their certificates, was due to the dearth of funds and the need to judiciously manage resources accruable to the institution given the reality of the prevailing economic crunch.
Soyele also lamented the diminishing fortunes of Colleges of Education across the country, saying that its yearly admissions have dropped considerably as students prefer to spend four years in the university and obtain a degree rather than coming to the College of Education for three years and then go home with the Nigeria Certificate in Education.
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