The Cross River State Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade, has appointed an acting Vice-Chancellor of the Cross River State University of Technology (CRUTECH).
He is Prof. Ogar David Abua.
It was gathered that Prof. Ogar David Abua from University of Calabar (Unical) was appointed the new acting VC for CRUTECH, the appointment was effective November 7th 2019.
According to findings, the appointment was against choices made by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASU) of the University, a development that may lead to bad blood between the governor and ASUU.
The union has vowed not to accept any other candidate aside one from the list of five names submitted to the Governor.
The Registrar of CRUTECH, Mr. Gabriel Beshel who confirmed the appointment to newsmen via a phone conversation, however, said ASUU had nothing to do with the appointment.
“Governor Ben Ayade is the visitor to the University. It is only him that has the power to appoint the VC of the University. He has the power to appoint anybody to an acting position in the University. ASU does not have such powers and we have no idea about their choice”.
The state Chief Press Secretary Mr. Christian Ita also confirmed the appointment saying that the press release to that effect came from the
office of the Secretary to the State Government.
Already, there is tension in the University as ASUU, CRUTECH chapter convened an emergency meeting with a view to downing tools in the University.
Meanwhile, the lecturers in the University have returned the students examination scripts of both final year students and others to the office of the Vice Chancellor.

Friday Nwagbara, Calabar

The Federal Government says it has developed an accelerated education Curriculum that will cater for out-of-school  children across the country with emphasis on the insurgency and crises prone areas.
The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu stated this while speaking at the ministerial session of the just concluded 64th National Council on Education (NCE) held in Port Harcourt, last Thursday.
Mallam Adamu said the curriculum was developed by the Nigerian Education Research and Development Council (NERDC) to recover the lost years and restore normalcy in the affected states and local government areas within the shortest possible time,adding that the curriculum which the council at the just concluded meeting ratified ,is intended to provide an alternative basic education programme that will mop up out-of-school children and youths in those areas.
According to him, the programme was designed to have a one year cycle with opportunities for mains-treaming learners at age appropriate class levels in regular school programme and added the pilot scheme would be launched in Borno State and later to other states affected by conflict and dislocation.
“In the aftermath of the insurgency in the North Eastern part of the country,we have been left with orphaned children whose education has been disrupted in the process .
This was acerbated by poverty ,dislocation of social-cultural and psychological factors,” he stated.
The minister averred that on the strength of these challenges,the NERDC developed new contents which he said, had been infused into the existing school curricula for quality ,relevance and competitiveness, adding that some of the new contents added include Financial Literacy Education, Capital Market Studies, Trafficking in Person Education as well as the Online Safety Education.
Mallam Adamu opined that the contents were created to support our national drive for quality and enterprise education and human capital development as well as providing Nigerian children with opportunity of acquiring functional education and life skills that are relevant to the 21st century dynamic lifestyle,transit culture and skills set in the world work.
On the improvement of teacher quality,the minister said,the federal government had steadily increased budgetary provision for the training and retraining of teachers.
“We have also stepped up the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) which funded-teachers Professional Development (TPD) programme and resuscitated the Technical Teachers Training Programme (TTTP) with the aim of ensuring that teachers and education managers are exposed to current teaching methodologies, management systems and policies”

Akujobi Amadi

Miss Titilayo Jolapamo, 22, has emerged the overall best student of 2018/2019 graduating set of Achievers University, Owo in Ondo State.
The university held its eighth and ninth convocation ceremonies last Saturday at the institution’s campus.
Jolapamo, who read Microbiology, scored 4.85 cummulative grade point aggregate (CGPA) to emerge the overall best student of her set.
Although Jolapamo said that the journey was tough, she, however, added that she was able to navigate through perseverance and determination.
She noted that she did not mind the societal norm but kept fighting with interest and zeal in order to be a change agent in the society.
Jolapamo stated that she was confident in the direction of the university’s dream and lived to uphold its motto.
She, therefore, urged her colleagues to channel all they had learnt to adding value to themselves, their immediate environment and the country at large.
Jolapamo appreciated the institution’s management for imparting in the graduands wealth of expertise in various areas of life, pledging to be a good ambassador of the university.
Speaking at the occasion, the immediate past Chancellor of the university, Sen. Bode Olajumoke, called for a review of the policy which discriminated against and excluded private universities from financial assistance by both the federal and state governments.
According to him, graduates of private universities are also making impacts on the economy of the country, hence the need to consider them during their academic pursuits.
“Why must they be discriminated against? The federal government, particularly the National Assembly must do something about this,” he said.
Olajumoke enjoined graduands to face the challenges of life with courage and be good ambassadors of the institution, adding they had been trained and equipped to face the challenges of life and come out victorious.
Recall that Olajumoke, who stepped down as the chancellor of the school after seven years in office, was succeeded by Hon. Yakubu Dogara, the immediate past Speaker of House of Representatives.
Dogara said that before accepting the chancellorship, he had perused the vision and mission of the university as well as its history since it was established 11 years ago.
He said that he was impressed with the university’s vision and mission, pledging to join hands with other stakeholders in lifting its banner of greatness by raising the bar of academic excellence for the benefit of humanity.