The National Commission for Colleges Education (NCCE) has approved all the courses being offered by the College of Education Igueben, Edo state. The last accreditation of programmes was carried out in 2006 and this was the reason that Governor Obaseki gave an ultimatum to the Provost in 2017. The approval was sequel to the visit paid to the College by the NCCE team in 2018 for the purpose of conducting both institutional and programs accreditation exercise.
The current result of the accreditation has maintained the College’s proficiency to run Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) in its programmes. The College would continue to produce confident and dynamic teachers that will successfully perform teachers’ roles as enshrined in the National Policy on Education and fit in to the world of work and NCE programs in their chosen lines of endeavours. It also said the accreditation status approved the College capacity to run the accredited courses for the next five years.

The National Commission for Colleges of Education, NCCE, has granted full accreditation in all the 17 NCE programmes presented by College of Education Igueben, Edo State. The success is attributed to Governor Obaseki support, adequate preparation, hard work and commitment on the side of the management, staff and students of the college. Only very few tertiary institutions in the country can record this type of success in accreditation of academic programmes. Among all the Federal and State Colleges of Education in the country, Igueben is the only college that recorded full accreditation for all the academic programmes which of course represented 100 percent.
In 2017, Governor. Godwin Obaseki of Edo directed the management of the College of Education, Igueben, to get the institution ready for accreditation within 90 days.
Obaseki gave the marching order after an on-the-spot assessment of facilities at the institution, located at Igueben Local Government Area of the state. The governor expressed displeasure with the infrastructure decay in the school, and directed the provost, Prof. Matthew Omo Ojugo and other management staff to reposition the college. ‘’We must get accreditation for this school within the next 90 days, Mr Provost, if we do not have accreditation within the next 90 days, then, I’m sorry, you cannot be a provost anymore. ‘’So it is now your responsibility that we obtain accreditation for this school,’ he said.
Obaseki also assured them of his administration’s support towards tackling their challenges in the area of infrastructure, payment of salaries and arrears and proper funding of the school. The governor ordered a forensic audit of the institution’s financial account.

In his response, the provost of the college, pledged to reposition the institution before the expiration of the ultimatum. The College Of Education will admit students to its courses on a full-time, part-time, mixed-mode or distance learning basis as appropriate. All programmes of study will conform to the Institution’s regulations and requirements as they have be accredited by the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE).
At present, the school is a growing community of about 2000 students, but which is intended to grow quite rapidly. The College Of Education has been constituted to achieve the status of Centre of Excellence in the very near future.
In particular, you will experience two important aspects of our modern education. Firstly, there is much more emphasis on ‘student centered learning’. This means that you will take a highly active part in your own learning and will not be a passive body to which information is fed, only to be quickly forgotten. It is expected that this will facilitate much better understanding of the topics involved and lead you to be able to develop your own ideas. Secondly, you will see that there is a major shift in the assessment regime. The over-reliance on traditional examinations has been replaced with a mixture of continuous assessment and examinations, where in many cases modules only use continuous assessment. The overall aim of the innovative methods used in this College is to prepare you for life-long learning and to be able to stand on your feet as an entrepreneur with all confidence at the end of your course.

The Provost College of Education Igueben, Prof. Matthew Omo-Ojugo had set up high criteria for the management to meet. There is good quality of lecturers, the physical structures, the library and other resources made the college to get full accreditation and ensured that they meet the set standard. There is high benchmark to have either provisional accreditation, interim accreditation or full accreditation. Education has three major driving forces, which include cost, access, and quality. “ Access means making everybody having access to education, cost is reducing the cost without compromising quality while quality is about standard. Edo State Government has assured the management of the College of Education, Igueben that it would do everything within its reach to facilitate the accreditation of all the courses in the College. The government had embarked on massive infrastructural development to improve the standard of education in the state.

Edo state governor, Godwin Obaseki, has promised at several fora to fast-track the accreditation of programmes at the Edo College of Education, Igueben. He said, “My administration will support the Edo College of Education in Igueben, to get all its programmes accredited and ensure the execution of projects in the institution. We intend to reposition the school and ensure a smooth take-off of.
Prof Prof. Matthew Omo-Ojugo tenure as a provost is a period of worldwide financial crisis which severely affected the fortunes of funding by Edo State Government, but he led the college during a period of economic crisis, driven by the campus’ determination to lessen their dependence on government financial resources.
The people of Igueben, college staff and students are happy with the Governor giant steps of addressing the infrastructural and accreditation problems..

____________________________________________________________________________________________
Mr. Inwalomhe Donald, writes from Benin City, Edo State, [email protected]