THE 62 SANDWICH COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN BAUCHI STATE

On the Bauchi State House of Assembly's decries of  62 Colleges Of Education, and lamentation that 45 out of them are Unauthorised.

Wikki Times, an Online News medium reported and it is unfortunate and depressing to have such in our State.

I read the report and the observations of the Bauchi State House of Assembly, I've been saying this for years and unless a drastic change is made, nothing good will come forth of the said issue.

For immemorable times we've been lamenting this too, meanwhile, the body that is saddled with the regulations to all these is too weak to have made any difference to regulate such an educational catastrophe. On a serious note, the threat on which this time bomb is plastering to our honour as State is worrisome. 

Most of these sandwich colleges are substandard, they are only producing mostly half-baked graduates to fill into an already ramshackle system that for a very long time need an overhaul and strict rules of operation from the Ministry of Education, Bauchi State.

The Professional Standards for Nigerian Teachers consist of four Themes to be used to appraise the professional standing of a teacher in Nigeria. These are: 

(a) Professional Knowledge, 

(b) Professional Skills, 

(c) Professional Values, Attitude, and Conduct, and 

(d) Professional Membership Obligations.

And Some qualities of a good teacher include skills in communication, listening, collaboration, adaptability, empathy, and patience. Other characteristics of effective teaching include an engaging classroom presence, value in real-world learning, exchange of best practices, and a lifelong love of learning with all these, we can vividly recognize the shortcomings in almost every product of these Sandwich Colleges of Education that have already been tarnishing the image of the educational sector of Bauchi State, as lamented by our BAHA members.

There are numerous problems associated with the subject of discussion, some questions that will never be answered and that's the genesis of all these programs. The regulating body which is the State Ministry of Education has never put any effort to straighten quality, awarding permits to any dick and harry to establish private COE, even though there is a whole department saddled with the responsibility of assuring quality in our system, in addition to the National regulating body the NCCE (NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR COLLEGES OF EDUCATION) Are we now going to question the integrity of the department? Corruption has been indeed a remarkable enemy and a tool for the backwardness of our people.  

Apart from corruption, there is also a government factor, it is associated with the government's inability to provide higher education institutions, enough to accommodate the increasing number of candidates seeking to read professional courses. Communities, rights groups, religious associations as well as private individuals are at the forefront of establishing these Colleges, with the motive of 

(a) profit-making

(b) yearning to produce more NCE holders to field the gap in the teaching profession.

The general outcry on the quality and standards of the certificate has been subjective in contention and challenges for precept which raise the question of whether or not the said Colleges be allowed to continue, stop, or be regulated wholeheartedly. Also, there exists an accusation of excessive exploitation of students, where the tuition collected to compare to the output is outrageous. Another thing is that the said College of Education only has a singular line of courses they offered.  Art courses with relatively few Social Science and very limited Science courses. Hausa/Arabic, Hausa/Islamic, English/Social Studies, etc, almost all the Sandwich Colleges of Education in Bauchi State offers only these course to teaming several admission seekers even if they are not qualified, nothing like Science and Technology.

Another issue is Premises, most of the Colleges are not having a permanent site for their operations, it is being operated on a borrowed locations mostly public Primary or Secondary schools in towns, with the absence of many instructional materials to complement learning. Despite the exploitation of Students on tuition, they hardly build their permanent sites, they solely depend on borrowed structures for their activities.

After lamentations by the BAHA, we need to see aggressive measures taken by them to correct the problem. The House Committee on education should step up to their expectations to rescue the situation. There is a need for strong legislation on this menace to thwart the situation. There is a need for a strong law to give the State regulating ministry absolute power to check the excesses of the private school's activities in the States, to save the situation from being from very bad to very worst. Bauchi State Government can honestly be honest to give room for improvement and innovations to promote education in the State. So much to write with limited time.

ahmad.msalihu22@gmail.com