By Emmanuel Awari-Jalingo
The Provost, College of Education Zing, Professor Ejika Sambo has advised the newly matriculated students to take their studies with seriousness.
He gave the advice during the 46th matriculation ceremony held at the College Hall, Zing, Zing Local Government, Taraba State.
The Provost who administered the matriculating oath to the students, charged them to embrace the opportunity given to them with enthusiasm and determination to work assiduously to achieve success.
Professor Ejika Sambo urged the matriculants to abide by the oath taken and be good ambassadors of their families and the college by exhibiting good values of integrity and respect.
“The College has enough facilities that can compete favourably with it’s counterparts in the country. You are therefore eenjoined to utilize the facilities in your respective departments and also protect them for others to benefit after your raduation.
“I encourage you to be good ambassadors of your families and communities, let your actions reflect good values of integrity and respect.
“Your set is the luckiest because Dual Mode will soon commence, where you will enroll into Degree Program in the College without affiliating with any University.
He disclosed that the occasion was celebrated in a low key due to the college financial handicap and promised that it will be better by next year.
“We are trying to see how we will mobilize students to come. Last year, our admission was just Eight Hundred, I 2023 we have over Five Hundred, but this year, we have One Thousand, Three Hundred.
On the issue of falsification of results, he said,
“Our current Certificate is printed by Printing and Minting company, not in Taraba State and it is a foreign material. There are many processes that the certificate will undergo before it is finally iissued o students.
“We have our mechanisms of checking the certificate and that is why we are making sure that nobody have fake result. For the statement of result, it is the department that prepares the results, unlike in the past that consultant prepare it. It goes through various stages before reaching final stage and issued to students.
On the 50% reduction in Tuition fees by the state government, the Provost said,
“As I earlier said that the major reason for making the celebration a low key was the issue of lack of finance. The 1,300 students admitted, they were to pay N30,000, but now reduce to 15% which they pay N15,000. Out of this we pay our casual staff, security guards and others activities, so if these are been done by us, will this money be enough?. At least the government should provide the balance of the money for the smooth running of the College.
“Example ID Card, we formerly print one ID Card at N700, but now it’s N2,000 and the government reduce it to N1,000, where do we get the balance of N1,000?.
“We are appealing to the state government to look into this, with their help, they should give us the balance of the 50% so that we can be able to run the College.
On Internal Generated Revenue, the Provost said,
“The College has fixed it’s machines ready for training of artisans on various skills.
“I want to use this medium to call on politicians that want to empower their people with skills, should send them to us for training on various skills. We can give them training on various skills such as Catering, home management, Carpentry, Block making for we have the all the machines, Tailoring, Auto Mechanic, Sewing amongst others.
According to him, if politicians send their people to them for training, the College will no longer rely on government for funds.
“We will generate funds locally or nationaly. We can be able to generate funds to run the College, since we are not profit making organization, but we are servicing organization – he said.
He congratulated the students for been among the few luckiest to gain admission into the college, stressing that the college will soon commence dual mode system, a situation that allows the college to run degree programmes independently without been affiliated to any university.
The Provost used the medium to appreciate the state Governor Dr Agbu Kefas for the passion he has for education in Taraba State for his continues support towards ensuring the good standard of education.
Some of the matriculants,Joy Habila and Ismail Hashim expressed joy for witnessing what they described as historic in their academic journey.