BENIN CITY: Edo state governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki has given the Provost and the management team of College of Education Igueben 90 days to get the school accredited or else head will roll.
The governor gave the warning while on a working visit to the school where he inspected the facilities on ground in the school to see how the government would give the school a face lift.
“I give the management of the school 90 days from today to get the school accredited but if we do not get accreditation for the school, head will roll. Your management has done a good job for developing a master plan for the school, we would get the master plan and expand on it and that would be the platform to reconstruct this school”.
The governor who frown at the dilapidating structure and facilities in the school promise to step in and make it a reference point in training teachers and service providers in education industry. “If this was the kind of school that my teachers were trained, I would not have gone to school and become what I am today. We cannot talk about education and its standard without talking about the qualities of the institution that produces the teachers”.
Obaseki said building alone cannot make a school. He said he is sad not because of the sub standard structure in the school but because the teachers who are to train the student are unhappy. “We have to rebuild the infrastructure of the school, we have to motivate the teachers but wants to warn you that we must get value for money. Government must get true value for whatever money it spend. When we pay you your salaries, you must teach. We must get through value that must be reflected in the quality of education and service you provide for the student. Government would do its part but government would be very rootless if you don’t leave up to expectation”.
He said he has decided with the management of the school that with immediate effect the salaries of the lecturers should be paid on current bases. He said his administration has got a flurensic auditor to audit the school account to understand what is happening with the finances. “Before the report comes out, from January 2017 your salaries will be paid. The outstanding arrears which was not paid year once the audit report comes out and we know what is wrong we will then pay”.
“Politics is politics, we cannot bring politics into training of a child, I cannot accept politics in the standard of this school, and only the best would be brought here. Anybody who is not up to standard and not doing the job of a lecturer no matter where you come from will be shown the way out, it is only the best that will be here. It is only when we set the standard right that we will be able to attract the quality student and quality funding for financing the school”.
