BUSINESS Agric to assist over decline in subventions – Provost FCE, Zaria
Dr. Ango Abdullahi Ladan is the Provost, Federal College of Education, Zaria. In this interview, he explains among other issues, how he intends to use agriculture to counter the challenge of paucity of funds in the college. Excerpts;
Daily Trust: Most Nigerians are not happy with the progress being recorded in the education sector, what is your take on this? Dr. Ango Abdullahi Ladan: Yes, it is true the education sector in Nigeria is not where it is supposed to be. I am saying this because with all sense of humility I have seen it all. I have been in the education sector throughout my life. I attended teachers’ college for my secondary education, my first degree was in education, so also second and third. I taught at different levels and when I joined this college, I started as an Assistant Lecturer and rose to Chief Lecturer. I have been a Head of Department, Dean, Deputy Provost, Acting Provost and now Provost. So, with about 37 years experience, Allah has given me the privilege to assess our education sector.
One of the major problems of the sector is paucity of funds. Without adequate funds, not much can be achieved. Therefore, the government should ensure that it increases its allocation to the education sector. It is with funds that you can train and retrain your teachers, provide infrastructure and other essential requirement.
It is true that government cannot fund education hundred per cent, but it should provide at least 50 per cent of what is required. Education is the bedrock of any development. The entire world powers that you see today are where they are because of the importance they attach to education.
Teachers and other stakeholders should also be patriotic. By patriotism, they are to be diligent and committed to their responsibilities. A situation where a teacher would refuse to discharge his duties is a major setback to the profession.
Daily Trust: Since you identified paucity of funds as major hindrance to achieving educational goals in Nigeria, what measures are you putting in place to address that in your college?
There are other challenges, but paucity of funds is the major one. In FCE Zaria, we are following the footsteps of the present administration by exploring the agricultural sector to augment our funding. Presently, we are operating a farm in the college. You would be amazed with what we were able to achieve this farming season.
If we harvest these crops, I am telling we are moving towards the direction of becoming self-reliant. Not only that, in the farm we have livestock section. If we harness all these resources; crops, cattle, chicken, fish, etcetera, I am telling you we would become a model for other institutions to imitate.
After this harvest, we would also move into irrigation because it is also a viable venture.
We told ourselves that the college should no more rely on collection of school fees because many parents now find it difficult to pay because of the economic challenges. This is why we are managing the students by giving them grace to pay. We are doing this because we are aware that some of these parents are being owed salaries. The major source of our revenue is no more reliable and government allocation cannot meet our demands.
This is why we have been thinking out of the box in order to find means to sustain ourselves. Aside our agric department, we are also looking at other areas. The department of home economics would also be empowered because they have a lot of things to offer us. Daily Trust: You mentioned assisting students who cannot pay their school fees at the stipulated time by giving them grace to pay, in what other areas are you assisting students?
We do give scholarships to students in serious conditions. Students who are intelligent, but their parents cannot pay, we do assist them. For example, presently we have a science student in our scholarship who has to drop for a session because her father doesn’t have the means to pay.
We are also looking into the students’ hostels. Some of the facilities at the hostels are more than 40 years old. They were there since our days as students. When you enter the hostels you would find that the facilities we used when we were students are still the same.
The new hostels that were built are not up to the standard of these decaying ones. This is a serious problem and this is why we are giving the renovation of hostels serious attention. We are also improving our sporting equipment to serve as recreational facilities for both staff and students.
We are also encouraging the student unions to come up with programmes that would assist their members. The student unions can be arranging tutorials and this would greatly reduce examination malpractice in the college.
We are also beefing up security in the college. We are doing our best to ensure that all vices that can disrupt peace in the college are not imported. We are trying now to fence the entire college. This can also assist us to stop further encroachment on
Daily Trust: Do you have any advice on how the government can assist Nigerian children?
We should come up with a policy of identifying intelligent and gifted children and support them. In other countries that is what they do. Government sponsors all these intelligent children and they become the drivers of their development through technological innovations.