Worried by the state of affairs in the 104 Federal Unity Colleges nationwide, the Federal Government has assured stakeholders that it would raise the quality of education to enhance  students performance in the colleges.

The Minister of State for Education, Chief Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, who stated this at the 2019 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Principals of Federal Unity Colleges, said it would take more than the efforts of the government to achieve an outstanding secondary education system.

Represented by the Director of Basic and Secondary Education Mrs. Binta Abdukadir, Nwajiuba revealed that unity colleges serve as models and pacesetter to all states where they are situated.

“In character, learning and academic performance, the unity colleges should take the lead while others follow.  This seems not to be the situation in all of our 104 colleges today which are uniformly operated in terms of human and material resources”,  he stated.

According to him, the government will continue to raise the quality of the colleges and give every student equal educational opportunity to succeed and achieve his or her full potentials.

The minister tasked the principals to take the presentations and discussions seriously to equip them to face the challenges in the 104 colleges.

Said he:‘’ The Onus is on you to ensure effective implementation of the policy initiatives of the Federal Government to improve academic achievements in our federal unity colleges”.

The chairman of Chairmen, Principals of Federal Unity Colleges, Mrs. Stellamaris Omu, said the AGM is a forum to interact, share experiences and best practices.

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Omu described the theme of the AGM as apt and timely considering the challenges facing the unity colleges and noted that it behoves on the principals to steer the ship of corrupt-free institutions.

She listed the challenges facing unity colleges to include, staff that has overstayed in the colleges and made themselves landlord/ladies, truant staff, disruption of college routine by unchecked union activities, posting of untrained and inexperienced new staff, irregular capacity building programmes, insufficient ICT facilities.

Others are lack of qualified personnel for trade subjects, causal staff, lack of equipment, deployment and concentration of teachers in core subjects areas to the urban situated colleges to the detriment of others in the rural areas, newly recruited teachers who do not want to be in the classrooms but at the headquarters, cases of indiscipline amongst students and conflicts between the principal and Parent Teacher Association (PTA).

“The Onus lies on us to make the best use of the financial, human and material resources that are available for the total development of the learners and the learning/teaching environment”.

The incoming chairman of Chairmen of the Federal Unity Colleges, Dr. (Mrs.)  Tokunbo Yakubu-Oyinloye said the message of the AGM is for principals to go back to their colleges to fight corruption, sexual harassment, and other educational vices.

Dr. Yakubu-Oyinloye, who is also the Principal of Queens College, Yaba, acknowledged that the Federal Government has always provided funds to the Unity Colleges to update facilities and expand access to education.

She insisted that unity colleges do not tolerate examination malpractice because students are well tutored for internal and public examinations, adding as principals we do not assist our students to cheat.