Osun State Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, on Thursday lashed out at the authorities of the state College of Education, Ilesa, for holding a combined graduation ceremony for four sets of students in one day.
Aregbesola, however, ordered the authorities of the institution to, henceforth, stop organising combined graduation ceremonies for the graduating students of the school.
The governor also ordered that all outstanding graduation programmes of the institution must be concluded before the end of 2017.
The governor gave this directive while speaking at the combined 24th graduation ceremony of four sets of 6,600 students at the auditorium of the college in Ilesa.
He, however, appealed to the students of the college not to disrupt the academic programmes of the institution to enable it to meet up with the set target.
Aregbesola said, “Combined graduation ceremony must not happen in this school again. This graduation ceremony, I believe, is for the sets of 2007 to 2011. It is too much and not good enough.
“The graduation ceremonies of the set of graduates between 2012 and 2016, which will be the 25th graduation ceremony must be done in two batches before December, 2017.
“I implore the students of this great institution not to disrupt the academic programmes of this school so as to meet up with the set target.”
Speaking on the various interventions of the government in the education sector, Aregbesola said it was occasioned by the education summit chaired by Prof. Wole Soyinka, which gave some recommendations that government had begun to implement to improve academic performance in the state.
The governor also used the occasion to shed light on the restructuring of the state tertiary institutions, saying it was not aimed at scrapping any school or retrench workers but to make the schools more relevant through the offering of vocational training and provision of remedial courses for young school leavers.
While congratulating the new graduates, the governor described graduation from an institution as an accomplishment which prepared them for the future.
He urged those who will be going directly into teaching to see it as an opportunity to give back to the society through teaching morals as well as trying to improve the academic qualities of the younger generation.
“We are determined to improve the standard of education in our state; that is why we are spending so much in building state-of-the-art education facilities across the state.
“Our vision to restructure our state institutions is not to scrap any school or retrench workers, but we want to make the schools more attractive to the world. We want them to be able to offer remedial courses to young school leavers and provide vocational training to people in the society,” Aregbesola said.
In his address on the occasion, the Provost of the institution, Dr. Kadri Adegoke, explained that the ceremony was being used to reward excellence and hard work through the award of prizes to graduating students who had performed in an outstanding manner.
Adegoke said that the programme was also being used to honour two eminent Nigerians.
