Governing Council Chair, Dayo Faduyile advocates more funding for FCEs.
By Steve Ovirih.
Prof.Dayo Faduyile,OON is a man of many parts: a Professor of Pathology and Forensic Medicine, one time National President, Nigeria Medical Association( NMA) and active member of Lagos NMA. He was Special Adviser on Health to Ondo State Governor and recently, he was appointed as Chairman of the Governing Council of Federal College of Education, FCE Kontagora. As a senior lecturer in the university, his new appointment no doubt has given him a vantage position to offer his wealth of knowledge in the education sub sector.
In this exclusive interview with Steve Ovirih of thepolity.net, the education stakeholder bares his mind on issues bordering on challenges in the education sector, solution , the need for quality teacher education in Nigeria among other sundry matters.
Excerpts:
WHAT DO YOU think are the challenges bedeviling the smooth running of Federal Colleges of Education, FCE in Nigeria?
Prof.Faduyile:Thank you very much. What I find out in the Federal Colleges of Education in Nigeria is that we have a lot to do about funding. Over the years, funding of Colleges of Education has been dwindling and funding is almost near zero now especially now that we have government that is being cash trapped. Again, we should also understand that the colleges of education are the institutions where new set of teachers of the next generation are being trained. If we fail in getting them trained properly, we are by that action going to have issues with the generation coming behind us. So, the issue of funding is a very critical area I believe Federal Government should look into. We have other teething issues that are not really about funding though also related to funding. It’s about the change in the curricula. The curriculum in the different courses in our colleges of education need to be upgraded to reflect academic nuances of the current generation. We need to upgrade to the 21st century teaching methodology. The way students had been trained in the last thirty to forty years need to receive a facelift so that teaching can harness the realities on ground. Again, the major issue that is not really about government is the matter of interest of students to want to come to colleges of education as a priority and not as a second option thing. Most students when they write the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board ( JAMB) Examination, they choose universities and Polytechnic as their preferred institutions of study. Very very few chose Colleges of Education and there is this belief that the colleges of education are at the lowest rung in the education system in Nigeria.So, we want to encourage more brilliant students who want to write JAMB to think of enrollment in the Federal Colleges of Education so that the colleges of education will not be seen as second or third fiddle that admit the dregs who could not make it to the university. So some of the challenges are those that have to do with funding which requires government direct intervention and efforts are being made to call the attention of stakeholders to this area.
WOULD YOU ADVOCATE increase in school fee as a way of combatting fund challenges confronting colleges of education?
Prof.Faduyile: The truth about it is that we need to face reality.Gone are the days when we say education is a social contract If we are to get the best of education, we need to fund it. The belief that government should fund education in its entirety doesn’t sync with the situation of the federal government now.It is very obvious that government cannot fund education appropriately. For example the school fee paid by students which should augment government funding is obviously not enough and that means something must give.I know this for a fact that some of the hostels these students stay need more attention and what they pay as accommodation fee is so paltry that it cannot cover maintenance and rehabilitation of these hostels. Yes, I enjoyed minimal pay of tuition and accommodation fees as undergraduate, so, I will also want the present crop of students to benefit from the minimal pay that covers accommodation fee but what we have on ground shows that government cannot fund education effectively and the amount being paid by students is so paltry that it cannot even cover maintainance of the hostels for two weeks of an academic semester. So, it’s a dicey situation: while we wish the government can shoulder funding responsibility, stakeholders input no doubt will equally be required.Of course, we have to appreciate government for reaching out with the lofty idea of loan supports for students as this will go a long way, allowing government to use that route to fund education by providing the needed loan assistance to students. It will be ploughed into the institutions, providing an avenue for students to get the best of education without been hamstrung by fund challenges.By and large , there is need for a serious critical thinking and meeting by stakeholders in the education sector to agree on the best way to resolve funding challenge.
THERE IS THIS opinion in the polity that quality of education is falling. And also that graduates of Colleges of Education are more affected because they are the ones that will go out to teach new generation of learners. What in your estimate can be done to correct this anomaly, falling standard of education?
Prof.Faduyile: Well the question is in two form; first one is the output from the colleges of education and the second one is the falling standard of education.The falling standard of education,you will agree with me, is universal and it is not unconnected with how much fund that is pumped into the sector. When I was an undergraduate, I can tell you that the equipment that were available for our use then, many of them are not available anymore. It is very unfortunate! Again, we have higher number of students in classes now compared to years back and the facility and infrastructure are not enough to cater for the huge population of students and this affect the way lecturers pass information across to them. We have a lot of good brains that have left this country for one reason or the other and we are not having the best of resource persons who should teach; even as we talk now some of our best hands already have their eyes fixated on the brain drain phenomenon. So, in my own view these are the challenges that have culminated in the falling standard of education. Also, we cannot shy away from the fact that many a time, our academic calendar is disrupted across schools for one reason or the other. So, we need to have a critical look at falling standard of education generally. The unfortunate thing is that the world is moving at a very fast rate , so if we are still using the old methods of passing skills to our students and we do not even have the necessary teaching aids across departments, then we are not doing very well. Be that as it may, with the injection of students’ loan scheme introduced by the Federal Government we believe that it will aid teaching and learning more perfectly well as appropriate tuition can be generally agreed on. On the issue of falling standard in the colleges of education, we must note that it is after the universities and Polytechnic have taken their prospective applicants that the rest are now pushed to the colleges of education.This is a demotivating factor for the people in the colleges of education who see themselves as second or third class students; we need to let them know that becoming a teacher is a noble calling and as JAMB applicants, they should not see the colleges of education as a negligible options they now have to clutch to when other options fail. They should be happy to want to be teachers by offering to go to colleges of education because when they graduate their profession will have a huge impact on future generations of learners who will rely on their teaching intuition and professionalism. Again, it behoves government to also pay attention to taking good care of teachers as their welfare if properly attended to becomes a huge incentive and teachers put in their best when their welfare is government’s priority. By so doing you will see more people wanting to return to the teaching profession. We need to go back to the tradition thirty , forty years back where teachers are held in high esteem and seen as respected professionals in the society. By the time we resuscitate the didactic methodology of teaching, training and getting improvement and translate it to the young learners and students across federal colleges of education, we will improve the falling standard of education and the country will be better for it.
YOU ARE THE Chairman, Committee of Chairmen Federal Colleges of Education in Nigeria and you are the Chairman Governing Council, Federal College of Education, FCE Kontagora. What’s your Council’s plan for staff welfare and facility upgrade in FCE Kontagora?
Prof.Faduyile: Well, thank you very much for that. The good thing I met at FCE Kontagora was that there are so many projects that are ongoing. Project that astonished every member of the council on that visit, I mean gigantic projects that we all are very happy about. And again, we need to also appreciate government for thinking it right and deeming it fit to have TETFUND. The body has done a lot of intervention assistance in our tertiary institutions. I can tell you many of the projects at FCE Kontagora are super mega projects that will make for change in the life of the students while improving the quality of training that the students will get. I can assure you teachers being churned out by FCE Kontagora can compete reasonably well with their counterparts elsewhere base on the facilities available in the college of education. For example, FCE Kontagora has a 1000 capacity Computer laboratory where computer based test (CBT) can hold effortlessly and these are great initiative by the management and previous council. But importantly, what we need to ensure is welfare of the lecturers and the non academic staff. We are going to enhance their welfare because it is when there is motivation from the workforce that the staff can give their best and impact the system more positively. We are going to see how we can encourage them in the area of academic researches because one of the process of getting better in the academic environment is through sustained research works. We are going to look into how we can raise more funding for research.We are going to look into how we can make our students at FCE, Kontagora to have mutual academic interactions with their peers through symposia, lectures, workshops and exchange programs not only within the country but outside the country too. This is a usual practice in the education system in other parts of the world and we shall inculcate this too in Kontagora. Another area of great concern for any young lecturer or any staff in any of these institutions is the issue of housing. We should be able to create some fund and once we are able to get such fund, we plough it into the system as loan to facilitate housing for staff, so that they can conveniently have housing that can accommodate them and their family in that location. There are other welfare issues that are not directly related to the total pay package. We must make sure that they have the incentive that can make them work effectively. We will look into making available the equipment that they need across departments and offices that can make them work effectively. We are aware Kontagora is one of the communities where we have had security breeches here and there. In the course of our visit, we were at the Kontagora Area Command Office and we had a robust discussion on how security concerns as they affect staff and students are given priority approach.These are some of the things we are going to work on to get the best for our staff at the FCE, Kontagora. But generally as the Chair man of Chairmen Committee of Federal Colleges of Education in Nigeria, we have had several meetings and interactions with some government functionaries; we have met with the Minister of education, members House of Representatives and Chairman , House Committee on Federal Colleges of Education; we have gone to Tetfund and we have conferred with other education stakeholders in order to see how they can have a different look at the Federal Colleges of Education in Nigeria so they can be on the same page with us on the importance of Colleges of Education as the power house where trainers of Primary and secondary school students are taught.We are working on re- engineering the thought of education stakeholders so that more attention and energy is brought into the teaching and academic engagement in our federal colleges of education across Nigeria.
THANK you for your time Prof.
Prof. Faduyile : Thank you too Steve for dropping by.
