Provost, Federal College of Education (Technical), Akoka in Lagos, Dr. Wahab Azeez has disclosed that the institution is giving serious attention to security.
Azeez made this disclosure while presenting the management scorecard for two years since assumption of office as the Provost of the institution yesterday in Lagos.
He said that the services of the legionnaires have been engaged to beef up its internal security even as CCTV is being installed in the school.
The Provost added that arrangements are also being made with the officers from Sabo Police Station in addition to its private measure.
“We are giving serious attention to security, and that is the reason we went further to engage the services of legionnaires to beef up our internal security.
“We should also be mindful of the fact the CCTV is being installed in the college in order to ensure that the students are living in a safe environment.
“Arrangements have also been made for officers from Sabo Police Station, linking up from time to time, in addition to the institution’s private measure.” The Provost said.
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The Management Head explained that his desire is to ensure upgrading of the institution to Federal University of Technical Education.
He said efforts were ongoing with support from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to improve the current state of the College in the areas of infrastructure, learning, and teaching.
“The Act that established this College is being amended at the National Assembly; my aspiration is to see that this college is upgraded to the Federal University of Technical Education.
“This is to enable us to service the students we are yearning for that want to run degree programmes in technical education, and we are already talking with members of NASS on it.
“We need to make the public know the importance of technical education here in Nigeria; China is giving preference to technical education, being the reason for its progress.
“In all of these things, TETFund has been of great assistance; our programmes are increasing; so, we need to expand and create enabling environment for youths to learn more skills.”
According to him, some of the challenges we inherited from the previous administration were inadequate teaching infrastructure, facilities, problems of landscape, dilapidated hostel accommodation, inadequate power supply, and misrepresentation of the college.
“We have created more and improved our ventures as part of the efforts to tackle the issue of inadequate funds, and also, to increase our Internally Generated Revenue so that activities we need to carry out do not suffer.
“Now, the issue of water and power supply is being addressed; alternatively, we got a proposal from a consultant to provide solar energy that we can use to power our streetlights and illuminate the entire environment when there is a power failure.”
He added that the management needed the inputs and presence of the Lagos State Government, as the Federal Government-owned College was located in Lagos.
Azeez explained that the idea was to bring to the awareness of the Lagos State Government that the college has facilities which could accommodate and help students from technical schools to pursue their career.
“We have the construction of a two-story block of classrooms for teaching and offices for use by members of staff, both for academic and non-academic, while our senior staff block we will be changed to have inbuilt toilets.
“In addition, we have acquired equipment like multimedia projectors a d interactive boards for departments, and also, the first-ever five hundred (500) capacity lecture theatre, which the college has never had,” he added.
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