By Olanrewaju Adesanya
SUNRISE NEWS, Lagos, Sept 11, 2020 The Lagos State House of Assembly has charged the management of Michael Otedola College of Primary Education, Noforija, Epe (MOCPED) on the need to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on campus and improve on entrepreneurship.
The Chairman House Committee on Education, Hon. Yinka Ogundimu stated this during a tour to the institution on Thursday to ensure strict compliance with the COVID-19 guidelines.
Ogundimu urged the school to make provisions for sanitizers and more hand washing basins to curtail the spread of COVID-19 in the school.
“We have been going round schools in the state to ensure compliance to COVID-19 guidelines as directed by the Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa.
The lawmaker emphasised the need to look inward to generate funds for the school so that they could be self-sufficient.
According to him, You must also look at how to make your school self-sufficient, and look for the needs of the society. They must be equipped right from the school so that they could fill the gap in the education sector.
He stated that the school could make their own sanitizers in a different way and make them sellable so that they could be useful for the people of the community and that the school would earn income from such.
However, Ogundimu in company with other members of the community including Hon. Bisi Yusuff, Hon. Setonji David and Hon. AbdulSobur Olayiwola explained that schools in the state needed more teachers, and charged the institution to change their focus to attend to the immediate needs of the state in the education sector.
“The requirements for secondary schools teachers are the same with what those of primary schools teachers. So, the focus must change.
“You must change the focus on how you do things. Primary schools teachers are in high demand, but we must change our focus.
“They ask for a minimum of NCE to be employed as teachers, whereas those with Masters degree are also applying for the same job, so the quality of your graduates matters.
“We need to do something that would become a legacy. You will leave the office one day and the work of your hands would speak for you. You have to deliver and this requires extra efforts from you.
“The way we do things has changed because of COVID-19 and things can never be normal again and we must watch how we do things,” he added.
The Provost of the institution, Dr. Nosiru Olajide Onibon had earlier told the committee that the institution once had recession, but that it was now back on track.
“When I got here we had less than 1,000 students due to some issues, but now we have 1,700 students, and we were licensed to issue NCE Certificates.
“The school did not have results or certificates for the students for about five years, but we have cleared all the backlog of the certificates except for about three or four students.
“I was in Abuja to submit results for graduates of 2018/2019 at the NCCE office and I was told that they are now ready, so we can go ahead to write the certificates.
“I want to appreciate TETFUND for their supports. We have been going round to get training for our staff despite our resources are limited.
“We charge just about N18,000 to N20,000 per students per session which results to about N40 Million per annum. We have about 500 staff and our overhead cost is about N120 Million per annum”, he said.
The Provost said that the college was founded over 20 years ago, and that it is a specialised college for primary education, adding that its the first specialized college for basic education in the country.
He added that the institution was known as Lagos State College of Primary Education before it was named after former governor Michael Otedola of the state and became MOCPED.
