The honourable Minister of Education Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau (CON) paid a courtesy visit to Federal College of Education (Technical) Akoka. The Minister who was on an Impact Assessment Tour to Tertiary Institution in Nigeria, commenced the second leg of the visit to University of Lagos, Federal College of Education (Technical) Akoka and Yaba Collgge of technology having completed the first leg of the Impact Assessment visit in Abuja.
In his welcome address, the Chairman governing Council, Alhaji Kabir Aliyu Maska, congratulated the Honourable Minister of Education for his appointment and showed the conviction that the Minister with his wealth of experience assisted by seasoned technocrats will guarantee the successful actualization of the education transformation agenda of President Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
The Chairman expressed concern on the space constraint the college is facing as the number of students increase yearly and appealed to the Minister to find solution and bring to an end the land dispute between the College and the University of Lagos.
The Chairman College Governing Council Alhaji Kabir Aliyu Maska showed his gratitude to the Minister, TETFUND, Africa Development Bank as well as the stakeholders for their immense support in the college and manpower development.
MINISTER OF EDUCATION’S RESPONSE
In his response, the Minister expressed his thanks and gratitude to the college community for giving him a befitting welcome, expressing his satisfaction over what he described as decency, clamness and good conduct the way staff and students conducted themselves in what he called decorum and discipline. The Minister stated that the era of strike is over in education industry, saying his mandate as minister has fulfill having resolved, succeeded in ending the strike. He further said he was embarking on an impact assessment tour of tertiary institution in Nigeria, the tour became necessary as part of efforts to gain first hand information on the challenges facing federal government owned institutions saying working with pictures and documents in modern day Nigeria could be deceptive.
The Minister added that parts of the measure to nip strikes in the bid was his commitment to ensure the dignity of teaching service in Nigeria through adequate welfare packages, training and re-training of teachers at all levels, government would continue to give priority attention to provision of conducive teaching and learning environment among others in line with the transformation agenda of Federal government and President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
The Minister, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau pledge to resolve the perennial land tussle between the College and UNILAG saying it was a family matter that would be addressed in due course. The Minister Commissioned two major projects, which are – the link bridge to the disputed land provided by the African Development Bank (ADB) and the TETFUND four storey classroom block. The Minister said, as a classroom teacher, who is proud of the job he appreciated the system in Akoka and hope others will emulate and cultivate the noble ideas. He stated that visitation panels reports are currently before Mr. President and the white paper on the reports will soon be sent to Colleges Governing Councils Chairman for implementation. He said his priority is to raise the moral of teachers adding that teaching is the noble and most glorious job.