FCET Umunze Denies Strike Rumour, Holds Matriculation

FCET Umunze has denied that it has commenced a three-week warning strike.

Newsone reports that the Management of the Federal College of Education (Technical) Umunze, Anambra State, has refuted the fake report of a three-week warning strike by the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU).

This online news platform understands that some online reports had quoted the Chairman, COEASU, FCET Umunze, and Dr Churchill Okonkwo as asking parents to withdraw their children from the College because the lecturers in the institution had commenced a 21-day warning strike.

Contrary to this news, the College, on Friday, August 26, 2022, held her joint matriculation ceremony, with a large number of teaching staff, including Deans, Heads of Departments, Coordinators of programmes and other categories of teaching staff in attendance.

No fewer than 562 students were admitted into the degree and NCE programmes of the institution. Several parents that attended the matriculation ceremony hailed the College for running an uninterrupted academic calendar and empowering students for a brighter and more rewarding future.

Addressing the Parents Management Forum earlier before the matriculation ceremony on Friday, the College Provost, Dr Tessy Okoli expressed satisfaction with the peace enjoyed in the institution.

She maintained that the College has continued to graduate her students in record time. She said the students of the College have already started their First Semester examination, which would continue seamlessly next week. She advised parents to disregard the fake report of the strike, which was intended to cause panic and incite students’ unrest.

The Provost further advised reporters to always verify their reports to avoid misleading the public. She noted that students that absent themselves from school during the examination period would have themselves to blame.

In her address at the matriculation, the Provost said her long-term goal in the College to make the institution a centre of excellence remains sacrosanct.

She promised that her Management team would continue to provide the required facilities and environment for excellence to thrive.

She congratulated the students on their successful admission into the College which was rated the best Federal College of Education in 2019 by SERVICOM. According to her, the College pays serious attention to students’ attendance at lectures.

“Students must have 75 per cent attendance to lectures to qualify to write the course examination. I believe you have copied the First Semester exam timetable. There will be no disruption of this exam timetable. Students are advised to follow the timetable and be at the examination hall on time. Students who play truant during lectures or absent themselves from exams should prepare to fall,” she warned.

Also speaking, the Vice Chancellor, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Prof Charles Esimone, said the matriculation ceremony marked the formal admittance of the new students into the degree programme of the University domiciled in FCET Umunze. He explained that the degree programme domiciled at FCET Umunze meets the high academic standard in curricula and other requirements of Nnamdi Azikiwe University.

“For your stay in the Federal College of Education (Technical) Umunze to successfully end with the acquisition of a degree of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, you owe certain obligations to the College, your parents and yourselves,” he said.

The Vice-Chancellor, who was represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academics), Prof Frederick Odibo, summarised these obligations to include the payment of fees, attendance to lectures, academic honesty, and avoidance of cultism.

He explained that the quality of a university’s teaching-learning process lies in the performance of its graduands in the workplace. He further argued that the quality of output the students would come out with would depend on how seriously they take their studies.

Meanwhile, Newsone Nigeria reports that the high point of the matriculation ceremony was the formal admission of the students into their various academic programmes at the institution and the signing of the admission matriculation vow by the newly admitted students.