October 17, (THEWILL) – Professor Benedict Chukwuma Edigbo Mbam, Provost, Ebonyi State College of Education, Ikwo, has urged the state government led by Governor Francis Nwifuru, to consider the implementation of education budget in the State.
The provost stated this during a media parley with journalists in his office in Ikwo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.
Mbam, who said government needs to implement both capital and reccurent expenditure of the school, further disclosed that the institution was finding it difficult to pay imprest, buy equipment, host govering council meeting, pay severance allowance, said they have a lot of things to do in the budget.
He stated that the institution was still discussing with the government in that area, for them to come to their aid, especially in areas they are lagging behind.
“It has not been easy and on the other hand, I can say it has been easy. I assumed duties here in 2019 February 1st. I met on ground so many things that needed improvement. Number one, there were crisis, problems here and there.
“Crisis between staff or among the staff. Some group of staff were not collaborating with and group of staff and there were a lot of petitions everywhere. Some cases were at the industrial Court to be resolved. I met them on ground. When I came in here, the first thing I did was to make peace. So, the first thing I can say I have achieved when I first came in was peace.
“I intitated peace, united all the union leaders, the three unions that are here and then issued certificate for students that have graduated for over eight years.
“When I came here, I met over eight hundred million naira for the training of staff. Nobody was harnessing it; very few staff were going on training because of the crisis. So, if you apply for scholarship, it will be selective because there is segregations as a result of the crisis.
“So, I came and break that barrier. That eight hundred million naira has been brought down to four hundred million naira. So, many of them are abroad, many are doing the local training here in scholarships to do their masters and PhDs.
“We still have the issue of budget implementation. We know that the state government has a lot of programme, a lot of projects but not everything approved in the budget are implemented. The one the government implemented to the latest is that of payment of salaries. Though what they give as subventions do not pay hundred percent salaries, but it is regular, every month.
“We commend government on that , but we still need what we request in budget both capital and recurrent expenditure. We need to maintain our equipment, we need to pay imprest, we need to host govering council meeting, we need to pay severance allowance, in fact a lot of things we need to do and they are contained in the budget.
“But because of the big projects of government, they do not implement the budget one hundred percent. We will still discuss with government in that area, let them come and help us. We are lagging behind in that area.
“Sometimes, the management will stay like two months without imprest. We have been buying fuel with our money, we buy small, small office equipment and that is why we say we need all those things implemented in our budget. So, that is the area of paucity of funds.
“Another challenge we have which is the major challenge is decline in enrolment. Atimes you will come here, you will think it is a desert. There are no activities, you will just see lecturers, but there is no students. As I am talking to you now, five departments do not have any student.NCE 1, NCE 2, NCE 3, Degree 1, 2, 3, and 4 not even one student.
“Then the one that have, they are not many and that adds to our inability to generate revenue. There is what we call internally generated revenue, we cannot do that. Most of the IGR of higher institutions comes from the school fees. But we do not have students. What we have is between the neighbourhood of three hundred.
“Because of that, the school has set up what we call enrolment committee or what we call admission committee to know how we can get people, get states to know that Ebonyi State College of Education is here, to know that we can train and retrain the people that will man the primary and secondary schools.
“We know that one of the problem is that one entrace examination is taken. JAMB is taken for colleges of Education, Polytechnics and Universities. One examination is taken. And if you are taken exam and you have a child, you will say put university first, do not go to colleges of education and polytechnics.
“But we want to partner with some individuals and some groups and even government, let them declare scholarship to those that want to study here in Ebonyi State College of Education. I think many will come just because of scholarship. So, these are the challenges that are facing us: funds, decline enrolment will be a thing of the past”, he expressed optimism.
Sunday Ogbu is a professional journalist with eight - twelve years experience that had worked with various print and online media. Sunday specializes in news reporting with the aim of educating his readers on current social, political and economic occurences within his area of coverage. Sunday is a strong force to work with in the media industry and uses his positive attitude and tireless energy to encourage others to work hard and succeed. Sunday is inspired daily by his wife and their four children. In his free time, Sunday likes sight-seeing, reading and discussing issues of societal interest.
