A bill for the establishment of Federal College of Education, Igbekebo, Ondo State, has passed second reading in the Senate.
This followed the presentation of the lead debate on the general principles of the bill by the sponsor, Senator Jimoh Ibrahim (APC Ondo South) during plenary.
Leading the debate, Ibrahim said that the bill was read for the first time on Thursday, October 12.
He said that the existence of a sound and robust educational system in any country was predicated on the availability of qualified and well trained teachers to impact the required knowledge on the students.
“Thus, the need to have a strong system in our educational sector that shall continuously produce well qualified and trained teachers as it is obtainable in other developed countries cannot be overemphasised”.
He said that undoubtedly, the realisation that colleges of education were tools for national development, had led to an unbridled quest for and vigorous expansion of colleges of education in Nigeria.
Ibrahim said that the objectives of the college was to encourage the advancement of learning to all persons without distinction of race, creed, sex or political conviction.
“To develop and offer academic and professional programmes leading to the award of certificates, first degrees, post-graduate research”.
The bill was thereafter refered to the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFund by the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio for further legislative actions to report back in six weeks.
