Dr. Best Nuhu Barau Barnabas Unveils Vision for College of Education, Akwanga
By Roseline Okafor, Nasarawa.
Provost of College of Education, Akwanga, Dr. Best Nuhu Barau Barnabas, says his vision and plan for the institution is to develop a system that produces quality teachers who can meet up with the current digital trends of the world.
He stated this during an exclusive interview with journalists at his office, College of Education, Akwanga, on Wednesday.
Dr. Best Nuhu Barau Barnabas, who took over as Provost of College of Education, Akwanga, a few months ago, said his vision and plans for the college align with the original vision of establishing the college, which is enhancing teaching and learning environment for both staff and students.
According to him, when he came on board as Provost, he implemented and introduced a continuous assessment system where every student has to be assessed at the beginning and end of every semester before examination, saying this has yielded positive results.
On the decrease in student population compared to previous years, the Provost attributed it to the National Policy on Education by the Federal Government and the proliferation of universities, where JAMB directs universities to fix cut-off marks for admission at their discretion, unlike before, where students must have 180 marks and above before being admitted. This made students with even 130 and 140 marks gain admission into some universities.
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“We in the college cannot go far below anymore. More universities are established, and some students prefer to go there. But we thank God that the Federal Government has introduced what is called Dual Mandate, which has mandated colleges of education to offer degree programs”.
“Any moment from now, the issue of low turnout enrollment would be a thing of the past because we in the college may have more advantage simply because we are going to admit both degree and NCE students.”
According to him, the population of students does not matter, but what is important is to have students that genuinely possess good characters and learning skills to be good ambassadors of the college wherever they find themselves.
Dr. Best Barau maintained that the college is working towards developing short-term courses that will be able to address the needs of the youth through entrepreneurship programs.
He revealed that the major challenges confronting the college are security, power, and infrastructure decay, in which Governor Abdullahi Sule has put in so much to assist the college in the aspect of infrastructure.
“Much has been done by Engr. Sule in the aspect of infrastructure. Efforts are on to build the fence of the college so that the facilities and lives of both staff and students would be protected.”
The Provost further reiterated that his expectations in the next five years are to come up with an institution that will collaborate with relevant organizations through the Directorate of Linkages to achieve the desired goals, as well as come up with a community that is very sound in education, calling for support to enable him to succeed.
