FG Plans to scrap colleges of education

Nigeria Government House

THE Federal Government, proposed a plan on Thursday to scrap colleges of education and abolish the Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) as the basic requirement for teaching in secondary and primary schools in Nigeria.

Minister of State for Education, Mr Kenneth Gbagi, said this in Abuja while inaugurating the technical committee on the establishment of six new federal universities and the future of colleges of education, polytechnics, and mono-discipline universities in Nigeria.

The 11-man technical committee is headed by the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Julius Okojie, while the Chief Executive Officer and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, is to serve as the secretary. The committee has up till Monday, next week, to submit its report.

The minister said: “We are on the verge of whether we should phase out the colleges of education or upgrade them to degree-awarding institutions or convert them to purely technical schools. One of the universities we are going to set up now will be to train teachers for the upper echelon of education,” he also said “it is no longer fashionable for us to have this teacher training stuff with colleges of education. So, come up with an in-depth arrangement as to what we intend to do.”

Mr Kenneth disclosed that President Goodluck Jonathan had directed that the committee be set up to work out modalities for the establishment of the proposed six universities, one in each of the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria, especially in states that do not have such federal institutions.