The Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade, has disclosed why his administration began the construction of the state’s West Africa Advanced Teachers Continous Training College.
Ayade said the construction of the training college was aimed at moving “Cross River to the first position in terms of performance in WAEC and NECO examinations.”
Speaking shortly after flagging off the construction work of the training college in Biase Local Government Area of the state over the weekend, the governor said: “Arrangement was in top gear to change the state Ministry of Education to Ministry of Quality Education.”
Addressing journalists at the construction site, the governor noted that the intent of the project was to improve the performance and skills of teachers while addressing WASCE performance across the state.
The governor, who was accompanied by his deputy, Prof Ivara Esu and some members of the state Executive Council, said, “This will be the first of its kind in entire West Africa, it will be awarding degrees in collaboration with the British Canadian team, share affiliation with other universities across the world, particularly Canada and Britain.”
Affirming that the project will be completed within six months, the governor said, “The college will have international teachers, particularly from Pakistan and India to handle physics and chemistry,” adding that government “will take a lot of teachers from the Philippines to teach in specialized areas focusing on improving WASCE performance in the state.”
He also disclosed that the project was cited in Biase in honour of his Deputy, Prof Ivara Esu.
“I just thought to myself that one day when we are out of office, they will ask what did you do for Biase people when you were a deputy governor?”
“You will have a very big project to show as a former Vice-Chancellor, former Dean, a university professor and now a deputy governor, so, there is nothing that will please you more than adding value to education in the state.”
“To have quality education, one must have good teachers’ training, so this institute is dedicated to teachers’ training located in the heartbeat of a city and location where they produce lots of professors including the former Vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar, now the deputy governor of Cross River,” he said.
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