NCCE praises AOCOED at inaugural lecture

The National Council for Colleges of Education (NCCE) has praised the management of the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education (AOCOED) Oto/Ijanikin, Lagos for ‘setting the pace’in international best practice in teacher education.

The Council, which is the regulatory body for colleges of education, expressed its satisfaction with the 61-year-old institution for setting examples for others to follow.

NCCE representative, Mr Vitalis Uji spoke during the inaugural lecture of Mr Anakoro Canice Ihentuge, a Chief Lecturer in the Department of English of AOCOED.

Ihentuge spoke on the theme: ‘The creative artist in the 21st century”.

Uji, who is the Director Academic Programme, recalled that no sooner  the Council directed that any lecturer who attains the ‘Chief Lecturer’ status in colleges must deliver his inaugural lecture, that AOCOED complied.

“I can say without fear of contradiction that NCCE as a supervisory body is happy with the college because it has always played by the rules. For instance, the college has never lagged behind in accreditation and it’s always setting the pace in other quality assurance measures,” Uji said.

“In 2013, AOCOED invited NCCE to conduct a staff audit in the college. The exercise lasted three weeks and a high quality report was produced, which must have gone a long way in elevating the quality of decision-making by the management. This college was the first in the country to take this measure, and since then other colleges across the country have followed suit,” he added.

Uji said as it is the tradition in universities, the Commission also feels that teachers who have reached the the height of their profession must deliver their inaugural lecture in compliance with international best practice.

Delivering the lecture, Ihentunge said unlike the previous generations, the 21-century artist have more challenges to contend with. The scenario, Ihentuge argued, is not helped by a surge in global malaise, such as poverty, food and water shortage, ritual killing, kidnapping, famine, corruption, war and global warming.

Nevertheless, Ihentunge challenged contemporary artists to be on the move, having a deep understanding of the world he lives before putting pen on paper.

Ihentunge said: “Indeed, corruption seems the hallmark of modern world governance, especially in Africa.Worse still, the young are overzealously being initiated into this ugly tradition.

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“The artist role as the watch-dog of the society is much more required in lifting the next generations out of the mire of extinction The artist should do more urgent and crazy things to save the generation. And like several other advocates of the arts, our proposal would be: ‘Now is the time to strengthen’ our institutions so that artists can emerge uniquely prepared to engage such important global concerns.”

According to him, contemporary artists are boxed into a corner in their careers, particularly the one’s bordering on creativity and ingenuity. More worrisome is the fact that some teachers do not seem to appreciate art as a concept that is dynamic, he further explained.

“Just as the society itself, art changes her garment every now and then. Art emanates from man, from nature, and from the creator Himself. Based on my experience, I boldly attest to the reality that ‘art is being’. Human being changed as their world gets transformed. The same happens to art; it cannot stand aloof beside man. It bears out man’s metamorphosis. Unfortunately, some educators do not realise this. Through ignorance or lack of imaginative ability or even indolence in the application of their natural aptitude, art suffers together with the society in their hands.”

Earlier, AOCOED Provost, Dr Aina Ladele, assured the audience that the inaugural lecture had come to stay.