Dr Ademola Azeez, Provost, Federal College of Education, (Technical), Akoka, Lagos, has called for adequate remuneration for professionals in the education sector to stem brain drain.

Mr Azeez, who made the call during an interaction with reporters on Sunday in Lagos, said that the current remuneration for education graduates was generally not encouraging.

He said that while some graduates of colleges of education were without jobs, those who managed to secure employment were underpaid and exploited.

“If you get to primary schools or junior secondary schools, I don’t expect to find university graduates teaching there.

“It should be NCE graduates because they are trained for that purpose. That’s what they are trained for; they have the temperament.

“As a PhD holder, you can’t ask me to go and be teaching in primary school, I don’t have the temperament.

“So, people working at that level are meant to be paid well because they are professionals.

“We need to be paying teachers and other professionals very well,” he said.

On the ongoing projects by the college, Mr Azeez said that the construction of the Technical Education workshop, initiated by his administration, was about 90 per cent completion.

Others are the laboratories for the School of Science, particularly for the Physics Education Department, Chemistry Education Department, Integrated Science, Biology and  Computer Education.

“We also initiated the construction of a 500-capacity lecture theatre, the first of its kind in the college. It’s been completed and has been handed over to us by the contractor.

“Similarly, we initiated the construction of infrastructure for Fine Arts and Agric Education departments in the School of Vocational Education. It’s also 90 per cent completion.

“We were also able to initiate what I call Student Activity Centre, the first of its kind in the college, it’s TETFund-funded which is completed now,” he explained.

Meanwhile, the College Provost said the establishment of the Entrepreneurship Education Department and Centre for Vocational, Technical and Entrepreneurship Development (CEVTED) was to equip students with practical vocational skills.

“It is a directorate on its own. What we do there is to make it compulsory for all our students to register for any entrepreneurial skill of their choice, which is different from the normal academic programme.

“Whether you are science or business education student, you must go to that centre to offer a course between 11a.m. and 1p.m., as all students leave their classrooms and go for that programme.

“They’ve been doing it, and they are in 300 level now. Many of them have been practising what they have learnt there and they are making money from it,” Mr Azeez said.

 (NAN)