By Stephen Adeleye

The Kogi State College of Education, Ankpa, and College of Education (Technical) Kabba, have both received full accreditation of all their academic programmes by the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE),

This was disclosed when the Provosts of the two Colleges, officially presented their accreditation letters to the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Hon Wemi Jones, FCIB, in his office on Thursday in Lokoja.

Speaking, Dr Mohammed Kabiru Ibrahim, the Provost, College of Education, Ankpa, said all the 29 academic programmes presented by the school got full accreditation.

According to him, by this development, the College of Education, Ankpa, now has all of its programmes accredited.

Ibrahim explained that the college was recently visited by an accreditation team from the NCCE, who came to access the institution and its academic programmes.

He added that the result of the accreditation came out recently and all the 29 academic programmes as well as the physical infrastructure were fully accredited.

”We felt it was wise to bring the result to the Commissioner, who is our boss in charge of our immediate constituency, and has fully supported us in all the processes.

”So, we are here basically to share the good news with him in terms of our success in just concluded accreditation exercise,” he said.

He commended the Governor who is a visitor to the college for his passion and love for education, and for creating the enabling environment, funding, recruitment of the academic staff, which set the stage for the accreditation process.

On her part, Dr (Mrs) Victoria Jagboro, Provost, College of Education (Technical), Kabba, said all the 14 academic programmes presented by the school got full accreditation.

”We are here to really appreciate the Hon. Commissioner for standing with us in a journey that is almost one year, and to formerly present the result of the accreditation to him.

”We entered in for 14 programmes and all of them were accredited, and that is the first time all the programmes will be accredited in the college,” she said.

Jagboro added that the significance of the feat was that ”the college is authentic, credible, and would attract more students’ enrollment into the school,.

In his response, the Commissioner commended the two provosts, the management and staff of their schools, for their commitment and dedication to making it a reality.

”When God sends you on an assignment, he backs you up with energetic, articulate, brilliant and intelligent people.

”I thank God Almighty for His Excellency, Governor Yahaya Bello, who gave me this job and also decided to back me up with people who never take no for an answer”, Jones said.

He said he felt so fulfilled that the remarkable feat happened under his watch as the education commissioner, saying, ”God is with us in Kogi State who has made it to come into reality”.

He added that all the programmes in Prince Abubakar Audu University (PAAU) had also been accredited as well as the Kogi State Polytechnic.

The Commissioner stressed that he felt so honoured for bringing the letters to his office, and for onward presentation to His Excellency, who had given all the necessary support.

He, however noted that the accreditation was a call for more work, saying the State Government was working hard to addressing the issues of proliferation of substandard colleges of education in the state especially in Ankpa.

He added: ”this is actually a call to service and we have to justify to use the opportunity to get more students for enrollment.

”We thank God for having these results and we are not going to take it for granted”.

He commended the Governor for devoting everything to the development of education in the state, which he had demonstrated by 30 per cent budgetary allocation to education.

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  College of Education (Technical) Kabba, College of Education Ankpa, Dr. (Mrs) Victoria Jagboro, Dr. Mohammed Kabiru Ibrahim, Education, Governor Yahaya Bello, Hon. Wemi Jones, Kogi News, Kogi State