By Gabriel Dike

The provost of the Federal College of Education (Technical), Akoka, Lagos, Dr. Ademola Azeez, says the 57-year-old institution has the manpower and facilities to award degrees in various technical education courses.

Dr. Azeez, who disclosed this at a briefing to mark his second year in office, said, already, discussion was on to amend the act establishing the college and convert it to University of Education, Technical.    

Flanked by senior management staff at the briefing, Azeez said his dream was to get the Federal Government to upgrade the college to Federal University of Education, Technical, in no distant time.

“The act that established the college is awaiting amendment by the National Assembly. If it is amended, it will allow the college to run NCE and degree concurrently. It will be transmuted to Federal University of Education, Technical. We are in talks with the National Assembly on the issue,” he explained.

He said many lecturers of the college have Ph.Ds, while several others are in the process of completing theirs, noting “currently, we are running degree programmes in affiliation with University of Benin. We want to run our own degree programmes. We use our lecturers, facilities and curriculum for UNIBEN programmes.’’ 

Azeez, who was appointed in May 2019 by President Muhammedu Buhari, described the two years in office as hectic and acknowledged he met some challenges when he resumed.

According to him, the challenges included lack of fund and facilities, problem of land mass, lack of hostels for students, welfare issues for staff and students, office space for staff, inadequate power and water supply, image problem and the issue of national and international linkages with other institutions.

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On funding, the provost said his administration has been prudent in the use of college resources and also established ventures to improve on Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

He disclosed that the college approached the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETfund) for special grants, adding ‘’Construction is currently ongoing in the college. It is our efforts to solve the problem of lack of facilities on campus.’’

Said he: ‘’In all of these things, TETFund has been of great assistance to the college; our programmes have increased. So, we need to expand and create enabling environment for students to learn more skills.”

The provost revealed that the college management required the support and presence of the Lagos State Government in the country, as a Federal Government-owned College is located in the state.

Azeez explained that the college sent a proposal to the Lagos State Ministry of Education for collaboration with its five technical colleges to enable their students acquires higher certificates in different fields of studies.   

He said the reason for collaboration was to bring to the attention of the Lagos State Government that the college has facilities which could accommodate and help students from the five technical colleges to pursue their career.

Speaking on accreditation of courses, he said programmes run by the college have been accredited by the National Commission for College of Education (NCCE) National Universities Commission (NUC) for degrees courses. He also stated that the commission visited to access two courses, arguing ‘’we are sure that the two courses will be accredited.’’