The Oyo State Executive Council, on Wednesday, said it has approved the upgrading of the Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Oyo Town into a university of education.
The state’s Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Barrister Olasunkanmi Olaleye, disclosed while briefing journalists on the outcome of the State Executive Council meeting held on Tuesday.
Olaleye, who spoke with journalists at the Governor’s Office in company of Commissioner for Health, Dr. Bashir Bello; his Information ,Culture and Tourism counterpart, Wasiu Olatunbosun, said the school has all needed facilities to take off as a degree-awarding higher institution.
He added that all necessary procedures and protocols would be duly followed and relevant agencies and stakeholders would also be consulted throughout the upgrading processes.
Olaleye said:“The Council approved the upgrading the Emmanuel Alayande College of Education to a University of Education. The whole essence of this is for us to deal with teachers the problem of education from the baseline by producing competent educators and teachers with requisite pedagogical skills.
“The school, in recent years, has been running an affiliated degree programmes with another university and we realized that the students in the programmes actually outnumber the National Certificate Education (NCE) students that are the core mandate of the school. So, the school as it is today, with the infrastructure, materials and skill of the educators there, can actually take off as a university.
“We also realise the students, nowadays, prefer to have a degree than just NCE. So, with the location of the school, the presence of Federal College of Education (Special) in Oyo Town and College of Education at Lanlate, we believe the school has sources for students that can take the degree programmes. It can stand and based on that, the Cabinet approved the upgrading of the school.
“Now, we will take steps to apply to the relevant authorities for the upgrading any moment from now.”