Kwara State Seeks TETFund Support To Upgrade Three CoE To Universities

The Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, has appealed to the management of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) for support in the upgrade of the three Colleges of Education in the state to Universities of Education.

AbdulRazaq, made the call when he paid a working visit to the Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund, Arc. Sonny Echono on Wednesday in Abuja.

He listed the three colleges of education for conversion into Universities to include: Kwara State College of Education, Oro; Kwara State College of Education (Technical), Lafiagi; and Kwara State College of Education, Ilorin.

AbdulRazaq revealed that most of the colleges of education that are state-owned were faced with management challenges, including infrastructure, poor investment, and lopsidedness where the non-teaching staff are far more than the academic staff of the institutions.

He commended TETFund for its massive interventions in both federal and state public tertiary institutions across the country.

The governor said he was not at the TETFund to complain about marginalization but to thank the Executive Secretary and his management team for impactful interventions in Kwara state and indeed in the entire public tertiary institutions in the country.

He said it was on record that Kwara has one of the best University Library in the whole of the West Africa courtesy of TETFund’s intervention.

“Mainly, this visit is to say you are doing a good job, and on behalf of the people and government of Kwara state, we say thank you for the job you have done, and we appreciate you.

“But we need more support. By and large we intend to convert all our colleges of education to Universities of education and so we need your assistant to do that. It is easy to do that because the structures are there,” he said.

Executive Secretary of TETFund, Arc. Sonny Echono, in his response, pledged to increase its intervention to tertiary institutions in the State.

He also pledged to help the state actualize its dream of converting some of the Colleges of Education in the state into Universities.