History of Anambra State College of Education(Technical) Umunze
Federal College of Education (Technical) Umunze in Anambra State is one of the eight (8) colleges of Education (Technical) established by Decree No. 4 of 14th march, 1986. Perhaps its take off would have been delayed further if not for two principal personages who literarily induced the birth of the college. First was the philanthropic benevolent late Igwe (Dr.) M.N. Ugochukwu, LLB, OFR, and the Pioneer Provost Dr. T.I. Eze who was bent on making something out of nothing, in the face of all odds.
At its inception, the College moved to Umunze in November 1989, following a presidential directive. At Umunze, the Institution inherited buildings of the former All Saints Anglican Secondary School. At present, the infrastructures inherited from the school are being renovated and refashioned, as it were, to reflect the grandeur and convenience of a technical teacher institution. In some places in this temporary site of the college, completely new administrative blocks, classrooms, multipurpose hall, school and staff offices, science laboratories, inter-communication networks, computer room, hostels and workshops have sprung up, with heavy machines to reflect the status of a modern technology education environment.
In 1999/2000, the administration of Dr. C. V. Nnaka (Mrs.) made a deliberate effort to move the college to her permanent site at Nsogwu with the erection of a gigantic building to house the School of Agric and Home Economics Education. Lectures have already started at the permanent site.
The NCE programmes, run by the different schools of the college, have recently obtained successful accreditation of the National Commission for Colleges of Education, In addition, the College runs Pre-NCE programme in Business and Vocational Technical Studies from where most of our NCE students are drawn. The College also runs a certificate programme in Computer Programming to HELP provide our Students and the general public with a technological culture as we move into the 21st century.
Since its inception in 1990, the Institution, with an initial student enrolment of 70, has grown by leaps and bounds. Weathering the vicissitudes of a young institution, the college now has a student population of about 2000 with a corresponding increase in staff population. It has also graduated about 1,840 students in various disciplines and at various levels: NCE and technical teachers’ certificate.
The result of the accreditation visit conducted by the National Commission of Colleges of education (NCCE) (1999) showed that all the programmes of the college were accredited for the award of National Certificate in Education (NCE) Technical. The programmes of our newest school, the school of Computer and Science Education, were also accredited. The college is making every effort, under the new administration, to move to the permanent site located at Nsogwu, ‘and it is hoped that these efforts would clearly manifest in the next few years or so. Again, in order to make some contributions to community service and make its presence felt in the surrounding environment, the college set up a staff primary and secondary schools not only to serve her local community but also the wider Nigeria nation.
The college set up her Staff Primary School in 1 991 to cater for the needs of staff and their wards. With a handful of teachers and school, children at inception, the population of both teachers and children has grown steadily since then. Although the Staff Primary School is still operating from rented buildings nearby, it is expected that the college will put up its own primary school building in the permanent site located at Nsogwu village.
Furthermore, in 1994, the college set up a subsidiary Demonstration, Secondary School at a nearby town of Eziaqu to cater for the needs of staff and our ever growing Primary School graduates, The aim of the college in establishing this Demonstration School is to demonstrate in practical terms what a model secondary school should be in a period of economic recession and worsening structural adjustment programmes, At its inception, the school had about eleven members of staff and twenty-eight boys and girls. Since then, the population of both staff and students has grown steadily and it is still growing. It is gratifying to observe that the performance of staff and children in both our Primary and Secondary schools in ensuring qualitative education has been encouraging especially when viewed from their performance in external examinations.
Finally, the college took off under the leadership of the pioneer provost, Dr. T. I. Eze at the temporary site in 1990. Lectures commenced with a handful of staff and pioneer students in May 1990. Because of the crisis in which the college was engulfed in 1996, the founding provost was removed from office following the recommendation of an Administrative Panel of Enquiry set up by the Federal Government. In the interim, the Deputy Provost, Mr. O. Ibe was directed to oversee the college pending the appointment of a new provost.
History was however, made on 10th May, 1990, when the College gate was flung open to the pioneer students who had been waiting anxiously for the take off of the College academic programme. The College started with 70 Students made up of 23 males and 47 females. All the past Provosts and the Acting Provosts have transformed the institution into a modern tertiary school among its equal. The Provost Prof. J. Ogbuagu mni further raised the bar by making the College a degree awarding institution with an increase in population of about 1200 in degree programmes, 6000 in NCE and 455 in Post graduate diploma programme.
The College recorded another mile stone on May 17, 2018 as Dr Tessy Obumneme Okoli was appointed as the 4th Substantive and first Internally Generated Provost.
Source: fcetumunze.edu.ng
