Principals of 110 Federal Government Colleges in Nigeria have called for an upgrade of ICT facilities in the schools as well as more funding to meet the needs of the challenging times.
The Chairperson of the Principals, Dr Mrs Tokunbo Yakubu Oyinloye made the appeal in Abuja during the 2020 Annual General Meeting of Principals of Federal Unity Colleges.
According to her, “We will all agree that we are in challenging times especially with the advent of COVID-19 which has made a great difference in every aspect of life all over the world.
“This was a wake-up call to many of us that in this 21st century we would have to adopt and adapt new ideas and new technologies to be able to provide the best education possible to our students.”
The Minister of State for Education, Chuwkwuemeka Nwajuba tasked the Principals to return the unity colleges as centres of excellence.
“The theme of the 2020 AGM, “Restructuring Our Educational System to suit our challenging times”, is apt, in that it is imperative in ensuring qualitative instructional delivery so as to maximize student performance in conformity with the societal needs
“This entails that the present system of education should be modified by reforming learning, curriculum and pedagogy, to keep abreast with modern global practices in Education,” she explained.
Nwajiuba reiterated the federal government’s commitment to addressing the challenges facing most of the Federal Unity Colleges across the country.
Speaking on the theme of the AGM, the keynote speaker, Prof Ekundayo Ocholi of Guidance and Counselling Dept, University of Abuja, challenged the Principals and all teaching staff of the schools to be ICT compliant.
Ocholi said a restructuring of the educational system to suit the challenges of time would involve a review of Pedagogy and retraining of teachers.
She added that the schools must restructure for character training.
The Annual General Meeting of the Principals of Unity Colleges is an annual event that provides the opportunity to take stock of activities in Federal Unity Colleges and share best practices.
The Federal government added 6 new Federal Science & Technology Unity colleges to the existing 104, bringing the total number of FUCs to 110.
PIAK
