By Gordi Udeajah, Umuahia
The Abia State College of Education Technical (ASCETA), Arochukwu, has urged staff members with low academic qualifications, especially those with only first degrees to do the needful and improve their status.
The College Registrar, Ikechukwu Odoemelam, in a statement, yesterday, stated that management of the college is insisting that its academic staff members, with low qualification, acquire higher degrees. He stressed that the exercise is purely to engender greater efficiency, professionalism and academic excellence, and not a witch-hunt.
He urged affected staff members to access the N1 billion provided by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to enable them acquire higher qualifications or risk being disengaged.
According to him, the current phase of the exercise involves, primarily, academic staff members, who have worked for up to 10 years, and have not been able to improve themselves, academically, through acquisition of higher degrees like Masters and Ph.D degrees through TETFund sponsorship window as is obtainable in similar institutions.
Adding that management is aware of antics of former staff members, who were affected by the ongoing reorganisation exercise in the college, the registrar of the institution denied that the exercise is a witch-hunt or victimisation against anybody or group, as erroneously being speculated.
He said: “It is an exercise that has been on for the past two years, and will continue until the objective is achieved.”
He further stated that despite that the college, currently, has about N1 billion approved by TETFund for sponsorship of academic staff for Masters and Doctorate degrees, “some lecturers are not accessing it, because they lack the required academic capacity and/or their engagement in partisan politics.
“What is more worrisome is that TETFund may be compelled to recall the fund, and it is regrettable that despite encouragement by both the state government and the college management, some academic staff members have either refused or are unwilling to tow the path of caution, but have resorted to engaging in partisan politics and subversive activities against the state government, as well as the college.”
Source: The Guardian
