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The Federal
College of Education, Obudu, Cross River State will hold its first
convocation ceremony this weekend at its main campus, with over 10,000
students expected to wear the graduation gown in an elaborate combined
ceremony.

Provost of the
28-year-old institution, Joseph Effiom Ntibi blamed the inability of
the management of the school to organise convocation ceremonies in the
last seven years on paucity of funds. He said the October 30
convocation programme will also be funded from overhead costs.

The convocation
will be preceded by a lecture, and a gala night on Friday while on
Saturday, certificates will be presented to the graduates.

Seven Nigerians
who have contributed to the development of education and society will
be honoured with the fellowship of the college. They include Second
Republic Senate president, Joseph Wayas; wife of Cross River State
governor, Obioma Imoke; Paul Adah; Benue State governor, Gabriel Suswam
and the pioneer chairman of the governing council, Elizabeth Ivaase.

“We hope to use
the days preceding the convocation to inaugurate a number of projects
executed by my administration,” Mr Ntibi said. “These include language
complex, ICT centre, computer laboratory all equipped with computer
units, administrative block and over 20 other projects”.

The outgoing
provost said standards have fallen in the country’s educational
institutions, but observed that in this age of ICT, so much is being
brought into learning on daily basis.

Degree awarding

On the issue of
examination malpractices, the provost revealed that under him, some
lecturers and non-academic staff were dismissed for aiding cheating in
examinations. Some were caught with answer scripts outside their houses
in company of desperate students.

“After
successfully tackling the problem of examination malpractices,” he
said, “we proceeded to stop the sale of handouts and textbooks by
lecturers. What we have now is an organized central point for selling
textbooks to students at official price only.” Mr Ntibi said though the
college has executed over 20 projects under his leadership, management
has not stopped lobbying for funds. He said national assembly members
from Cross River North senatorial district have channelled N500m of
their constituency development funds to the college.

With a staff
strength of 1,040 and a recent recruitment of junior staff, Mr Ntibi
said everything was working towards making the college become a degree
awarding institution.

“We are on it,” he said. “The National Commission for Colleges of
Education is helping out as it’s a national policy for some colleges of
education to become degree awarding. We have contacted authorities of
the University of Calabar on this and got their support.”