The Provost, Federal College of Education (Technical) Umunze, Anambra State, Dr Tessy Okoli, has commended the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) for her various interventions in tertiary institutions across the country. She said TETFUND interventions have helped to bridge the funding gap and reposition benefitting institutions.
Dr. Okoli gave the commendation during an interactive session with newsmen shortly after the matriculation ceremony of the college, held recently. The institution had at the matriculation formally admitted 2,000 students into the NCE, CEP, Professional Diploma in Education (PDE) and degree programme.
While administering the matriculation oath, the Registrar of the college, Sir Augustine Udensi, urged the students to abide by the rules and regulations of the institution.
Speaking to newsmen, Okoli said the various TETFUND interventions in institutions have helped to alleviate the problems of infrastructure, and encouraged massive staff development and training. According to her, TETFUND has become a lifeline to benefiting institutions, addressing challenges of dearth of manpower, infrastructure and teaching facilities in public tertiary institutions.
“One of the cornerstones of FCET Umunze is capacity building, academic staff training and development. With TETFUND sponsorship, many academic staff of our college are pursuing higher degrees in both local and foreign universities. The entire cost of their academic programme is funded by TETFUND. This has helped our college so much. We have more than 50 doctorate degree holders in various fields, who invest their knowledge in the quality of teaching in the institution,” she noted.
Okoli explained that her appointment as the first internal provost of the college was an opportunity to explore the huge potentials in the institution, and as well address the peculiar challenges crippling the system.
She promised that the college would continue to provide unhindered access to tertiary education to students seeking admission into NCE and degree programme. According to her, thousands of students seeking admission into universities every year are often turned down because of the limited carrying capacity of these institutions.
“With the degree programme hosted in our college, we offer opportunities to countless students to achieve their dream. This institution will continue to play a leading role in increasing access to tertiary education for millions of Nigerian students,” she stated.
She expressed her determination to make the College a centre of excellence. She explained that the College has state-of-art facilities, including a well- equipped CBT centre, micro Teaching Lab, Virtual Library, with over 10 million e-book resource, among others.
The Provost said the dilapidated state of access road to the college has become a constant source of worry to the institution and appealed to the federal government and the government of Anambra State for help.
“The Anambra State Governor, Dr Willie Obiano, did a palliative work on the road before the last general election. During the last convocation, Governor Obiano promised to reconstruct the road and provide a 32-seater Coaster bus to the college. We pray that the governor, who is also a fellow of this college, would fulfil these promises,” she pleaded.
She further appealed to other philanthropists in Anambra State and the entire south east, including senators, federal and state lawmakers, educationists, captains of industry and corporate organizations to take up legacy projects in this college and immortalize their names.