The Federal College of Education, Special, Oyo, on Thursday announced that its 17th convocation has been slated for July 13, at the college’ premises.
The Provost of the institution, Professor Kamoru Usuman made the declaration during the press conference organized to mark the event.
According to the provost, a total number of 13,364 graduating students would be officially conferred the Nigeria Certificate in Education(NCE), in various disciplines of special education.
While explaining the significance of the college, as the only institution in Nigeria saddled with the responsibility to train teachers for children with special needs and different challenges since 1977, he noted that about 3.5 million children of school age in Nigeria are with one disability or the other.
The development of which he said led to the increase in demand for trained teachers in special education in our primary, secondary and tertiary institutions in the country.
“Federal College of Education Special, Oyo, remains unique among the 158 colleges of education in Nigeria. It is only of its kind that caters for the training of special education teachers for all the states in the country. This institution has the largest concentration of students with disabilities that could be found in any higher institution in Nigeria, as it is endowed with largest concentration of specialized facilities for teaching and training of teachers of special education and qualified staff in special education not only in Nigeria but also in some other parts African countries,” he said.
Professor Usuman commended the Federal Government for its financial support, through Tertiary Education Trust Fund and Capital grant towards the development of tertiary institutions in the country. He attributed the massive infrastructural development in the college to TETFUND and Capital Grant from the federal government.
He declared that the college’s resources would remain under utilised until it becomes an autonomous University of special Education in Nigeria. He appealed to all and sundry in the society to lend their helping hand towards special education and professional development in the country. According to him, the cost of running special education at NCE level is colossal.
Professor Usman called for the overhauling of colleges of education curriculum to meet the junior secondary school syllabus needs. He observed that most of the courses in the colleges of education are not being taught in the junior secondary education programmes.
According to him, it is high time every college of education ran a functional curriculum that will make them relevant in the primary and junior secondary education programmes in the country.
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