PRESS BRIEFING BY THE PROVOST KWARA STATE COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, ILORIN DR. YUSUF ABDULRAHEEM ON THE 18TH COMBINED CONVOCATION CEREMONY ON THE 11TH FEBRUARY, 2019

The Chairman and members of the Council

The Principal Officers of this Institution

The Staff and Students

Great Men and Women of the Print and Electronic Media

Ladies and gentlemen

It is my greatest joy and inclination to welcome you to this significant occasion sincerely. I acknowledge the presence of both past and current Principal Officers of this great College with whom I have travelled so far on this journey. I accordingly recognise our Governing Council members, Academic Board members, Congregation, staff and students.

I warmly welcome our eminent guests from far and near who have honoured us with their presence today. More importantly, I happily welcome the men and women of the press to their own programme. I appreciate you all for creating the time to attend this press briefing.
As we all know, this occasion flags off our 18th Combined Convocation ceremonies. I noted with dismay that the last convocation ceremony was held in this College 25years ago. Therefore, I have every cause to thank the Almighty Allah, the Giver of life and health, and the entire College Community that this day has come and for putting us at the edge of history. Indeed, a thoughtful heart is a grateful heart and as I said to the staff community this is a new beginning. So far so good.

I recall that in my address, tagged “A New Era”, which was delivered on Thursday 3rd May, 2018 that I received the baton of leading this College, I noted that “with the cooperation of all of you, Kwara State College of Education, Ilorin will become a world-leading college of education recognized for scholarship and known for excellence in teaching, research and services. I am glad today to report that I have enjoyed unalloyed cooperation from the staff and students for the academic peace and development of the College.

The College has witnessed giant developmental strides in its human, academic, infrastructural, environmental and general dimensions. In this sense, we have impacted actively, with empirical indicators, on achieving
1) quality instruction
2) positive attitude to work,
3) improved work ethics
4) quality education,
5) entrepreneurship,
6) clean water and sanitation, 
7) transparency,
8 ) decent hostel accommodation for students,
9) information technology infrastructure,
10) students’ rights and above all,
11) discovery of the genius in the students

From three Schools that we had in 2018, the College has restructured the frontiers of learning and scholarship with the six Schools we have today. The regulatory National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) fully accredited almost all our academic programmes, and in affiliation with Ekiti State University, the College has started full- time degree programmes in Education English, Social Studies, Biology, Chemistry, Early Childhood and French.

Though the records are there, let me briefly state that the College has embarked on projects in the last five months. During this Convocation Ceremonies, we are commissioning the Water Project and the revived Biological Garden. 
The College image has improved. This is evident in the number of students admitted from1800 2017/18 academic session to 2300 in the 2018/19 session. Moreover, with the current trend, it is my firm belief that the Kwara State College of Education Ilorin will become the most sought for in the nearest years to come because of the growing confidence in the Management and the repositioning of the College. Just last week, first in the history of the School, our College emerged third in the just concluded NACEGA Games held in Obudu, Cross Rivers State.

The 2018/2019 Session was necessary for the College in our three focal areas of teaching, research and community service. There was financial intervention from the Kwara State Budget appropriation and significant sources of funding for our capital projects' during the session were from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Internally Generated Funds (IGR) and private investors (Hostel Accommodation). The College Information and Communication Technology has attracted institutions and examination bodies to patronise and partner with the College in the area of CBT, while the results of students have been computerised for early and timely release to enable the students to take Direct Entry form of JAMB.

Academically, the College has improved with the quality and quantity of the research embarked upon by our lecturers. Three major College seminars on quality assurance, record keeping and supervision of teaching practice and four school seminars were held since my assumption in May 2018. Our students are now motivated to learn due to hard work on their part, the commitment of the lecturers to teaching and research and the conducive environment provided by the College.

It suffices to say that 1,329 graduands are convoking this year. These great graduands, who have been found worthy in character and learning, will be awarded their NCE during the convocation activities of Wednesday, February 13th, 2018 in the College Auditorium.

Within seven months in the life of this administration, the following have been achieved: 
• Inculcation of discipline in staff members and students.
• Regulation and placement of ban on illegal sales of handouts/reading materials.
• Timely release of students’ results. 
• Introduction of E-voting in the election of the leadership of student union.
• Establishment of pure water business in collaboration with Ad-doman multipurpose cooperative society of the College to boost the College internally generated revenue.
• On-going renovation of students hostels under public private partnership.
• Upgrading of the College clinic under the Tertiary Institutions Social Health Insurance Programme under the supervision of NHIS.
• Establishment of Advancement Centre to coordinate the activities of the College Alumni Association.
• Resuscitation of Legal/Advisory Unit of the College to advise the Management on legal matters.
• Restoration of the old six (6) schools systems.
• Restoration of Full time Degree Programmes in affiliation with Ekiti State University.
• Resuscitation and upgrading of Biological Garden of the School of Basic and Remedial Studies of the College in line with Ahmadu Bello University standards.
• Restructuring of the College School System in line with the NCCE minimum standards.
• Improvement in the College ranking in sport.
• Openness/transparency in school management leading to blockage of leakages in the College finances; and
• All inclusive administrative style.

18th Convocation Ceremonies
Our 18th convocation ceremonies for the award of NCE certificates and presentation of prizes begin today the 11th of February, 2018 with this press briefing. Also, there will be a convocation play tagged the Sacred Drum by Leke Joel the Current Head of Music Department in TETFund Hall B.and to be performed by four departments namely Music, English, French and Yoruba Department. I wish to inform all of you that this performance is the first collaborative work of its kind in this College. There will be a show today 4:30 p.m and the College Day Show will be tomorrow Tuesday, by 4.30 at TETFund Hall B. I am sure you do not want to miss the two performances, which promise to be very interesting. All the programmes will be shown, and streamed live on the College website and facebook.

On Tuesday, precisely 12th February, 2019, the College will host a distinguished world citizen who happens to be a Former Deputy Vice Chancellor of University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Prof. N.Y.S. Ijaiya, as Convocation Lecturer. She is a world-renowned intellectual who was once a lecturer in this College. She will be discussing “Teaching in the 21st Century: Wither Nigerian Colleges of Education” with us. The time is 10:00 a.m. and the venue is this Hall Two. By 4:00 p.m., same day, there will be Fund Raising/ Get Together tagged Kwara State College of Education, Ilorin Day. There will be Convocation Luncheon and Merit Awards at the Hall B. All of you, especially our men and women of the press, are invited to all occasions, please.

The actual convocation is on Wednesday, 13th February, 2019; there will be an award of prizes and NCE to the graduands of the College. The venue is the College Auditorium, and the programme begins at 10:00 a.m. precisely.
At 12 p.m., there will be Exhibition and commissioning of projects at their various sites. The projects to be commissioned this year by the Visitor include the following:
1. KWACOEDi Water
2. Revived Biological Garden

Appreciation
I am indebted to God and people in the course of the journey that began on the 2nd of May, 2018 when the responsibility of leading this College fell on my hands. I thank the Almighty Allah wholeheartedly. I am grateful to the Kwara State Government of Nigeria and the Visitor to this College, His Excellency, Alhaji (Dr) AbdulFatah Ahmed. I appreciate the Kwara State Ministry of Tertiary Education, Science and Technology and the Honorable Commissioner, Barrister Abdullahi Saad Alikinla, and I thank the National Commission for Colleges of Education and its Executive Secretary, Prof. Muhammadu Bappa, National Universities Commission (NUC) and its Executive Secretary, Prof. Abubakar Rasheed. I must also appreciate JAMB and its Registrar, Prof. Ishiaq O. Oloyede, the National Communication Commission and Executive Vice Chairman Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, the Teacher Registration Council of Nigeria and its Registrar, Professor Josiah Olusegun Ajiboye for their support.

The Chairman of the College Governing Council, Prince AbdulRaheem Aremu Olota is wonderful and I appreciate you. I am also thankful to the Governing Council of this College and I recognise the contributions of all the member, to our progress of institutional. They have all rendered us their backing and assistance in the task of making the College better and greater.

I also appreciate my management team in persons of the Deputy Provost (Admin), the Deputy Provost (Acad), the Registrar, the Bursar, the College Librarian and the Director of Works

I am grateful to the Deans of our various Schools as well as Student Affairs and School of Basic and Remedial Studies. Directors, Heads of Departments and Units, Chief Lecturers and senior academic and administrative staff, staff and students of the College, I thank you all for the support. You are all great!

The Alumni Association, the Student Union and friends of the College, I am indebted to you in many ways. I have also adored working with staff unions (COASU, SSUCOEN, and NASU) in the course of managing the affairs of this College and I thank them all for their cooperation. I must expressly thank the gentlemen of the press for their unflinching support to the College. I appreciate the press for trusting in this profound truth, sharing the vision of the College and clarifying the public on the sacrifice of our hardworking lecturers in the interest of the country and its future leaders. If we all sleep and face the same direction, we are vulnerable if we are attacked.

Distinguished members of this College Community and our friends, comprising those who have invested their time and energy in supporting this Administration, thousand words are not sufficient to express my appreciation. I thank you very much. Indeed, you are great!

God Bless