A Benin based group, Edo Forum of Patriots has written a letter to Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki to save College of Education, Ekiadolor from extinction.
The college hadn’t admitted students for two sessions due to the instruction from the Ministry of Education to stop further admission in order to phase out the NCE program and upgrade to a University.
NAIJA CENTER NEWS had reported that the institution is neither a college nor a university as the State government repeal the law establishing it after the upgrade even though there was no license to upgrade the purported University.
EFP in its letter to the governor urged the governor to correct the abnormal in the transition.
Read the excerpt below:
His Excellency,
Godwin N. Obaseki,
Executive Governor of Edo State,
Government House, Benin City.
Your Excellency,
Save College of Education, Ekiadolor from Extinction!
Our attention has been drawn to the current situation concerning the proposed University of Education Ekiadolor.
Sir, you may recall that the preceding regime of Comrade Adams Oshiomole put in the pipeline the process of upgrading the former College of Education to a full-fledged university.
To do this, the law establishing the state owned College of Education was repealed and a new one enacted to back the upgrade of the College to a University by the Edo State House of Assembly. Although this is to be applauded as Edo State is reputed to be one of the leading states in educational pursuits, the sad reality your Excellency, is that it appears proper intellectual foundation was not prepared for the smooth transition of the almost 40 year old institution to a full fledged University.
We wish to appeal, Sir that your government set in motion the process of correcting any anomaly in the transition process for the actualization of the worthy task of upgrading the College of Education, Ekiadolor to the status of a University of Education.
We find, Sir that the following describes the present situation of the process:
1. As it stands now, the institution is neither a College of Education (the law establishing it having been repealed) nor a University because it has not been recognised by the appropriate University regulatory body.
2. As a result of the above, the institution is neither able to admit students either as NCE students or as degree students for the past two years or more.
3. The fate of over 50 PHD holders and other 49 about to be PHD holders is currently at risk as no student no worker situation may lead to their being thrown into the labour market. We know that this would run counter to the job creation and retention policy of your Excellency.
4. The upgrade process has required that old staff of the institution reapply alongside new staff. The implication of this is that some old staff may lose their jobs in the process. May we appeal to your Excellency that in keeping up with best practices, retaining all the staff who have served the institution be a target for the purpose of fairness.
May we also bring to your notice that workers of this institution were last paid in September 2017 perhaps as a result of this avoidable situation and appeal that appropriate steps be taken to redress this in the face of current economic hardship.
Finally sir, what makes this appeal timely Sir is that if this process is not quickly resolved, the institution may be at risk of de-listing from the TETFUND beneficiaries’ list; a source of funding we are made to understand has been of immense assistance to the institution.
We as usual avail ourselves to be of help in resolving this problem as a non-partisan, socio-political body.
Assurances of our cooperation sir.
Happy New year.
Rt. Hon. Bright Omokhodion,
Member, IMC.
Hon. Austin Atakpu,
Member, IMC.
For the Interim Management Committee
