Why We’re Building A University Of Education In Niger– Nuhu Abu Nmodu — Aug 14, 2014 | Leave a comment The Niger State government has concluded plans to establish a university of education. This is even as a new education and scholarship policy is in the works for the state. The state commissioner for tertiary education, Dr. Mohammad Bashir Nuhu commented on these and other issues in this interview with ABU NMODU in Minna. Excerpts What is the main policy thrust of tertiary education in Niger State? Well, the cardinal objectives are: one, to narrow the gap that existed in terms of coordination between the various institutions; two is to ensure that there is an adequate way of reporting and embarking on peer review mechanism, and three is to a kind of harmonize and also serve as an avenue for a comparative advantage among various higher institutions and see where there are strength, where there are deficiencies and where there could be leverages to inform one another. Hitherto, the various institutions were reporting to different ministries, different agencies, some were even reporting to the office of the Secretary to the State Government, some to Head of Service, some to ministry of finance, some to ministry of agriculture, so you could see clearly dysfunctional relationship. With the establishment of this Ministry of Tertiary Education, we have been able to articulate and to harmonize all the institutions under one umbrella. How far is the plan for the establishment of the university of education in the state? We have gone far, the vice chancellor, Prof. Farouk Rasheed Haruna has been appointed, the chairman of the governing board and members have been appointed, even the law establishing the university has been passed by the state assembly. We will now leverage on the existing programmes at the state College of Education, Minna and delineate structures that will serve the university of education and that of the college of education; we will start admission November this year. The simple logic is that we already have accreditation by NUC for most affiliated programmes with Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto and ABU, Zaria, which of course would be the foundation for the take-off of the university of education. The faculty of education in IBB University Lapai will be phased out and taken to the university of education, while the staff and every other thing would now move into the university of education. So when you look at the whole package you see that it is well integrated, it is well comprehensively planned for it to succeed, naturally it has evolved; you are also aware that structures on ground at the college of education surpassed college of education standard, so that already is a leverage that of course we know that we will be taking to the next level. We have also made provisions for the training of staff, we have lecturers that are on doctorate studies oversees and within the country; we have already done staff audit, staff census, we have also identified the gap, department by department, we have looked at the programmes that we intend to start with, we have written the NUC and be rest assured that it will be a university to beat. What of the governor’s promise to relocate the college of education, why the change of plan? We are still retaining the site that was acquired at Munya after Gwada, that is Maraba Dandaudu, we are still retaining it because it would be career teachers development institute. So, apparently even the structures would be there. We have finished the master plan for that site, and we are coming up with the structure, it would be up for training and retraining of teachers on daily basis, in affiliation with university of education. In fact university of education is going to be multi campus, in such a way that it would provide continuous teachers development training at that new site . Even Fati Lami College of Legal and General Studies will also be in affiliation with the university of education in terms of structures, just like we have institute of administration in ABU. It would have its own unique administration and then it would be under the umbrella of the university of education. So, there is no change but a better approach for sustainable educational development in Niger State. Recently issues concerning salaries of lecturers, workers of tertiary institutions in the state have been creating problems, what are you doing to resolve this? We have made several resolutions and we have told them the challenges we have with the budget, budget passed by house of assembly is already in law and their demands have not been captured and we developed about four scenarios and the fourth one was the one feasible. We looked at the inflow to the state account and what can be implemented, in essence the proprietor of schools determine what workers can be paid, but now you bring in any salary structure from the federal and expect the state to pay. The state has to look at what is affordable and we agreed that there will be pay rise of about 15 percent for the college of education and polytechnic workers and then additional 5 percent for the academics’ earned allowance. Of course we have made it public, we have let them know it was agreed at the state executive council meeting and it was formally approved by the Chief Servant and of course we are working to ensure that it is captured in 2015 budget, so that by January automatically we will comply with the existing regulations. And at the last meeting we held with the commissioner for planning, commissioner for finance, SSG, Head of Service and all the chairmen and secretaries of the unions of the schools present, we all agreed to this amicably. And we agreed to call off the strike and for us in Niger state we are doing our best to improve the system. What are the standard gauges for scholarship in Niger State, what is the new policy in place for scholarship in the state all about? Like I did say earlier on, there is no written document that you can say that this is a document comprehensively, a policy document for scholarship in Niger state. But we have made a draft and we have subjected it to stakeholders’.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 10:30:08 +0000
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