COEASU, NASU lament deplorable state of College of Education Katsina-Ala [Photos]

Having viewed the deteriorating and diminishing fortunes of our beloved College, the above-named Unions in the College held a joint Congress meeting today, 19th July, 2023. The meeting noted as follows:

DEPLORABLE LOWERING OF STANDARDS

Our highly reputable College used to be known for her academic excellence and standards as well as production of quality graduates, has diminished tremendously due to poor management and leadership of Mr. Tsavwua J. A. Gborigo. Presently, the College administration has allowed leakages through posting of casual staff (who are owed several month’s salaries) to sensitive offices. Consequently, admission letters, certificates, academic transcripts and other sensitive College documents are being issued arbitrarily. Both the Nigerian Certificate in Education (N.C.E) and Centre for Undergraduate Studies programme students’ results are not being declared and released on time due to negligence, diversion of funds to trivial uses instead of focusing them on core academic matters. As a result, this has discouraged many people including the frustrated learners/students who now spread a bad image of the reputation of the College and no longer recommend the College to admission seekers to get enrolled in our programmes. This has immensely contributed to the dwindling student population of the College. Right now, the College Practicing School, the Demonstration Secondary School and Professional Diploma in Education programs of the College have folded up and have gone into extinction. Similarly, the student population in both the NCE and Degree programs have consistently shrank in the past four years.

STAFF WELFARE MATTERS

Staff welfare matters which are supposed to be sacrosanct in order to boost staff morale and get them motivated to discharge their statutory responsibilities optimally, have been completely relegated to the background. For instance, under the present administration, it has become a recurring decimal that staff promotions are delayed such that even when the affected staff get promoted at last, a colossal amount of the arrears of money is lost. In the same vein, the emoluments of lecturers who are committed and dedicated in discharging their duties at the Centre for Undergraduate Studies, for quite some time now, have not been paid as at when due. Investigations have revealed that at least 95% of students usually pay their school fees as this is a prerequisite for allowing them to sit for examinations. Yet, it is rather unfortunate that lecturers who are the architects behind the generation of these monies are not paid promptly even with the non-payment of salaries for a long time in the state.

THEFT AND VANDALIZATION OF COLLEGE PROPERTY

Our causal staff (security guards inclusive) are seriously ill- treated and are grossly under paid. Worse still, the peanuts due to them from the College are being owed for several months under the present administration. This has resulted in incessant theft and vandalization of College’s valuable properties that are worth millions of Naira. Also, basic facilities that will enhance effective teaching and learning in the College are lacking. Basic facilities like office equipment and materials are no longer provided to staff to ease their duties. Consequently, staff now source elsewhere for even sheets of paper and biros to discharge duties in their offices and to run other office affairs. Even Annual Performance Assessment (APER) forms are not made available in the college for staff assessment. Materials like duplicating paper, are scarce commodities such that most official documents usually are photocopied outside the College.

UNINHABITABLE NATURE OF THE COLLEGE ENVIRONMENT

The College environment is deplorable and totally uninhabitable. Almost everywhere is overgrown with bushes as well as unclean environment. All kinds of snakes and dangerous reptiles are all over the offices, lecture halls and students hostels. A member of the Congress even testified to killing snakes on three different occasions in his office. The Inikpi Girls Hostel last year was engulfed by fire due to the tall bushes and grasses that were surrounding it. Similarly, at night, the entire campus is perpetually in complete darkness, as the accumulated electricity bills are not being paid and the school has been disconnected from the public power supply while generators on the school compound are not been used due to the complaint of lack of money for fueling. Electricity cables and fittings have not been replaced, repaired or fixed for over some years now.

4. NON-TRANSPARENCY IN HANDLING OF THE COLLEGE

FUNDS: With this present administration, it is very clear that there is gross improper management of the College funds. This is evident in the under listed cases:

a. Benue State Government Grants for the College Accreditation Exercise: Our College has been long overdue for accreditation exercise since it has not been accredited for over ten years now. And investigations reveal that, the Governor Ortom led administration released forty million naira only, for this very important exercise, but even as we speak, the College Management staff are not aware of how this money was expended and no accreditation exercise has taken place up till today. Students pay money for Teaching Practice (T.P.) manuals but at the end they don’t get them and lecturers are compelled to photocopy T.P. assessment sheets to go and supervise the students.

b. Internally Generated Revenue (IGR): The management and expenditure of the College IGR is also highly questionable as very sensitive and integral parts of the NCE programme are been undermined and are not given due attention. For example, there are still pending Teaching Practice (TP) allowances payments that are unresolved. As a matter of fact, the current administration of the College has presently introduced tranche payment of TP allowances, of which arrears cases of even 2018 are still pending. The handling of TP has become so bad that there is no provision of materials such as Assessment Manuals, TP files and other facilities that enhance its effectiveness and productivity, even though students pay money for them.

c. TETFund Intervention Funds: The Congress observed that the proper management and disbursement of TETFund Intervention funds is doubtful too. This is quite obvious as most of the infrastructural facilities that are provided in the College by this respected body are of sub-standard quality. This then raises the suspicion that there are serious compromises with the contractors and other major stakeholders. Also, the interventions for staff training and development are sometimes delayed unnecessarily after reaching the school.

d. Needs Assessment Revitalization Funds: The Needs Assessment and Revitalization funds have been approved for public Colleges of Education in Nigeria by the Federal Ministry of Education, and it was strongly instructed that a Budget Monitoring Committee be constituted for effective utilization of the funds in every College. However, in our College under the present leadership, this mandatory committee has not been constituted. The Congress noted that if at all such a committee exists in this College, it is lopsided and does not conform to the Federal Ministry of Education guidelines since COEASU and other sister Unions like NASU and SSUCOEN have no statutory representation in the committee. This is money that will go a long way in revamping the College through the provision of highly needed facilities. Our institution was allocated over a hundred million naira under this programme and 50% has already been released and its usage in our College is still a mirage and only the Provost knows what is happening to it.

5. COMPLETE LACK OF CORDIAL WORKING RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE AND HIS SUB-ORDINATES AND UNIONS ON CAMPUS

For any meaningful development to thrive in an organization or sector, there must be harmonious working relationship between the Chief Executive and his subordinates. It is also acknowledged that where there is justice and equity, development thrives and peace reigns as well. However, it is rather unfortunate that, in our College under the present leadership, this is completely lacking due to the high-handedness and poor working relationship of the Provost and others. A typical instance of this cited in the meeting was that, before the commencement of last semester in December, 2022, the Provost sat alone and imposed twenty thousand naira (#20,000) levy on the degree students without College Management approval, and as a result he single handedly closed activities of this program for several months claiming that he heard rumors that students were planning to protest the said levy. Recently too, the TETFund Academic Staff Training fund which was released to the Academic staff who are on study fellowship had their first tranche payment released to the beneficiaries only through the special intervention of the management staff and Union leaders. The Congress wondered and were surprised that the Provost had no empathy on these colleagues whose families were starving and passing through pitiable conditions due to nonpayment of salaries running to ten (10) months and who were also in school as at the time TETFUND released the grant. And whenever he travels, he appoints the College Librarian as Acting Provost instead of one of the Deputy Provosts. This is a sign of deep distrust at the highest level of administration and such a situation does not portend the well-being of the College.

6. IMPROPER LEADERSHIP AND HEADSHIP APPOINTMENTS

The Congress noted that the operational guidelines of running the NCE programme are being grossly undermined in the College. The present Provost is now appointing Heads of Departments (HODs) whose ranks are is just Lecturer 1 including those without higher degrees, which is completely against the specifications in the NCCE green book. Consequently, this negatively affects accreditation exercises of such departments. Also, of note is the appointment of a political scientist to hold a post designated for experts in engineering. This is the position of TETfund desk officer in charge of projects.
Due process is no longer followed in the College. What is been done is that appointments are now based on favoritism and the wish of the Chief Executive. It does not matter again whether a junior staff is placed above his or her seniors. What matters now is to reward people who never voiced out the wrongful implementation of programmes and policies in the College With appointments to key offices at the detriment of those who are actually qualified to hold such offices. Similarly, there are cases of people who are at the verge of retirement but as far as they are in the good books of the Chief Executive, are appointed to headship positions to the detriment of those who in most cases are even more qualified to head such offices. This is completely at variance with our scheme of service and NCCE guidelines. This is not only capable of bringing disunity and acrimony among colleagues but this in turn will certainly affect the smooth and effective development of the College. It will also score our college low During accreditation exercises.

7. EXPIRATION OF TENURE OF SERVICE: To crown it all, the College records show that Mr. Tsavwua, J. A. G. was supposed to retire from the services of the College with effect from 10-09-2022 . His continuous stay in the college service is therefore a violation of conditions of service of the College and state civil service and as such is an illegality. This fact is captured in several disposition lists of the College of Education, Katsina Ala.
Having viewed the above issues as capable of collapsing our noble College leading to her total extinction, the Congress unanimously resolved that:

1. A vote of no confidence is passed on the Provost, Mr. J. A. G. Gborigo.

2. Academic and non-academic activities are hereby suspended until the College environment is sanitized and made habitable for the safety of both staff and students.