| By Emeka Amaefula FCE YOLA: SELLS THOUSANDS OF ADMISSION FORMS FOR UNAPPROVED UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMMES The Federal College of Education (FCE), Yola has reportedly engaged in sales of thousands of ‘admission’ forms to unsuspecting prospective candidates for unapproved and non-existing degree programmes in the institution. The Ear Witness has exclusively gathered. In the exclusive report, it is alleged that the College through its Directorate of Undergraduate Programmes sold the controversial admission forms to prospective candidates for the 2021/2022 academic session in 16 new courses, which it said, have been affiliated to the Universities of Maiduguri and Jos. It could be recalled that the institution was granted approval to run only nine (9) accredited courses in affiliation with the University of Maiduguri starting from the 2014/2015 academic season. The Ear Witness findings revealed that there was no way the College could have obtained approval from the National Universities Commission N.U.C, to introduce additional 16 courses beyond its original carrying capacity of Nine (9). However, the College through an advertisement placed in various media Organs, had deliberately informed the public that it had obtained approval to run sixteen (16) additional degree programmes supposedly in affiliation with the Universities of Jos and Maiduguri. It then called on prospective candidates wishing to be admitted for the Degree Programmes to pay the sum of three Thousand Five Hundred Naira (N 3, 500) for admission forms in the following new available courses: Early Childhood Care and primary education, Computer Science Education, Social Studies, Guidance and Counseling, Education Management and Christian Religious Studies. Other new courses advertised and said to be in affiliation with the University of Maiduguri were: Continuing Education, French Education, Business Education, Economics Education, Fine and Applied Arts, Geography, Hausa, Physics and Political Science Education. Investigations further revealed that thousands of unsuspecting prospective candidates rushed to the College Directorate of Undergraduate Studies and obtained the said admission forms, amounting to millions of naira, which is now believed to be a hoax. Contrary to its advertisement in the media, it is alleged that the College had no affiliation approval with the University of Jos, nor accreditation from the National Universities Commission to run the additional sixteen degree programmes prior to the advertisement. When contacted the College Acting Director of Studies, Dr. Hassan Mubi who picked his telephone call for him to respond to the allegations, later turned off his telephone immediately after listening to the questions from the reporter which states as below “Good Morning Dr. Hassan! I called you as a professional Journalist to get clarification on allegations of malpractice involving your Directorate of undergraduate Studies of Federal College Of Education Yola Adamawa state about the enrollment of students without due diligence of getting complete processed affiliate status from the institutions concerned especially one of the institutions being University of Jos. Kindly respond to my inquiry: (1) Do you have ‘complete affiliation’ with University of Jos for the degree Courses you sold admission Forms for?(2) Are you aware that your action is against existing rules of engagement having known that your affiliate institution didn’t grant you full status and you went ahead to obtain money from sales of admission Forms to prospective students?(3) Did you have accreditation of the Courses approved by National Universities Commission –NUC.(4) If you didn’t have affiliate approval with University of Jos, in your opinion what will be the fate of the undergraduate students? Are you going to refund the processing Fees to the victims of this maladministration of your Directorate of undergraduate Studies of Federal College Of Education Yola, Adamawa state? Kindly respond as the matter before you is of public interest and you have been offered opportunity for fair comment and fair hearing as the media is doing one of its statutory duties of being watchdog of a free Society to educate, to inform and to entertain. Thanks.” And when The College Acting Provost, Mr. Johnson Blo Malgwa who was contacted but he never answered nor responded to enquires made by the reporter on the issues raised as at the time of going to press. However, it was gathered that at the weekend some prospective candidates (not all) who purchased the controversial admission forms got SMS Messages, believed to be from the Bursary Department of the College, asking them to come for refunds. The Message exclusively obtained by the reporter read, “Please come with your account details and receipt of payment to the Bursary Dept., FCE, Yola for the refund of your application fees into Undergraduate Studies. -Bursar” The reimbursements of funds messages are believed to be an afterthought in respect of the controversial admission offer following inquires by the media and perhaps indicating that the courses were now not available. The Federal College of Education, Yola has recently been rocked by controversies, ranging from students rioting for lack of available water supply, fake employment scandal to fake admission offers. Commenting on the issue, a public affairs analyst and union executive in the College who does not want his name in print said “This is how low our education system has become. The sector that ought to be the bedrock of our development is left to decay in the hands of incompetent individual.” |
The alleged civil infraction is in violation to the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2018 as the victims may seek redress in a court of competent jurisdiction for compensation for the breach of contractual obligation of the Federal College of Education Yola, Adamawa state having failed to offer valid admission to the prospective candidates.