COEASU president decries poor funding, rise of illegal COEs in Nigeria

THE National President of Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), Dr Smart Olugbeko, has decried the rise of illegal colleges of education across the country.

Olugbeko also condemned what he described as poor funding of colleges of education in Nigeria, saying most of the public colleges of education could not have survived without the intervention of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).

He spoke at a workshop for journalists in Abuja, noting that from records available to him, only 70 colleges of education are officially approved in the country but there are over 1,000 existing illegally across the country.

According to an assessment conducted by the COEASU, Bauchi State, the home state of the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, alone has over 200 colleges of education.

Olugbeko, who spoke on the topic, ‘Evaluating Federal Government’s Role in Sustaining Quality Teacher Development and Improved Welfare,’ also criticised state governments for arbitrarily establishing higher institutions in the hope of getting intervention from the TETFund.

He particularly noted that poor funding has greatly limited the growth of colleges of education sub-sector, saying that NEEDS assessment was carried out in 64 colleges of education in Nigeria in 2014 and it identified N396 billion as the total amount needed to fix the infrastructural decay in the colleges.

He added that in 2017, the government did a review of the 2014 report and came up with N464 billion as the sum needed to fix the colleges.

He charged leaders to do away with the politicisation of education which has led to the proliferation of tertiary institutions without adequate funding policies, while concentrating on adequate welfare for teachers.

“Graduate teacher at the federal level takes home about N60,000 a month which is N720,000 a year which translates to 1000 dollars in a year, while at the state level it is about N46,000 per month. Poor working conditions, lack of remuneration to supervise the teaching practice, lack of regular in-service training and exploitation of teachers, among others are challenges of teachers’ welfare, which must be addressed,” he added.

Olugbeko further observed that the neglect and relegation of teaching profession to the background had led to the attrition-shortage of applicants-for education courses in universities and colleges of education in the country.