As I write this article, I cannot but continue to wonder at what will warrant the deliberate and unnecessary educational policy of our government which led to the reduction of a higher institution that has existed for more than 70 years to a mere secondary school, an action that clearly shows that suddenly rousing up from sleep and suddenly taking up decisions not in the best interest of the community progressively often amounts to a rape of hope of the people. Sometimes, our government must learn too that hasty decisions only move a society to the path of nothingness where nothing exists.
Is it for nothing that it is said that history will remember us all for whatever mark we have left even long after we have taken our exit from this wicked world? The rush to want to concentrate grand establishments in one’s hometown by our leaders have become a culture in this country which we have also become inured to, but the reduction of what has existed in other communities to achieve this is what should be of concern to us all. The Ibusa people may not be the most sophisticated people on earth but surely the people deserve a better life being a people of high population of educated men and women who have contributed to the development of this country.
The famous St. Thomas’ Teacher’s Training College, Ibusa was established in 1928 on vast expanse of land originally owned by the various Ibusa families, there are hostels, Basket Ball court, Volley Ball Court, relatively standard football pitch, staff quarters, a mission station among others also in the premises of the institution. The St. Thomas’ Teacher’s Training College is the oldest institute of Higher learning in Delta State and one of the oldest in southern Nigeria. The European missionaries responsible for the establishment of the institution of higher learning did so with a view to educating and civilizing the people of this area following the trauma Ekumeku wars they suffered in the hands of the people.
The teacher’s training College put the region on the pages of history as every part of the country benefited from it at a time specially when it was hard to predict that the missionaries could extend beyond the establishments of primary schools to set-up an institution higher learning, this made Ibusa citadels of education. Those trained in the institution can be in every part of the nation and every endeavour of life, an impact which can be further seen in the production of more than a hundred professors and other scholars by the town.
However, the Federal Government of Nigeria has through its vague educational policy twisted the fate of St. Thomas’s Teachers Training College, and by extension the people of the town thus reducing the college in status. The Teacher’s Training institute proudly established by European missionaries has been made to experience substantial reduction by the Government. As if the Teacher’s Training College was no longer relevant in standard or that the institute was no longer fit enough for the people, the government reduced the institute to a mere secondary school by simply transforming it to co-educational secondary school.
Again, as if the government was not satisfied with their prejudiced action, took further egregious action which led to the drastic reduction of the co-educational secondary to “All Girls” secondary school christened “Federal Government Girl’s College.” While one is not particularly against the gender status of the school, the action of the government towards the institution is unprecedented and a calculated attempt to deny the community its valuable institution of learning. It is unpleasantly remarkable that a once Teacher’s training Institute would be reduced to a Girl’s school.
What happened to all the expanse of land in the community? If the government was interested in developing education in the town, it should have acted wisely by acquiring a fresh plot of land and developing a secondary school for Girl’s rather than destroying what the missionaries worked hard to establish. It is pathetic that the students of St. Thomas College were relocated to a primary school, where they now share premises in the town. The government should note that this is not advancement for education but a regression, because as the history of the institution has shown, one day, the government might still wake up and convert it to a primary school. Now there is no single post primary institution in the town.
The last public school in the town was built by the missionaries, thus the newest school whether primary or secondary which the town has had in the recent times may be older than many of our fathers, since it has never been in the character of our government to establish at least a single school for the town.
The government should have taken a cue from the favourable history of Government Teacher’s college, Abraka established in the 1940s, later affiliated with the University of Benin in the former Bendel State offering degree programs. In 1985, it was granted autonomy when it became faculty of Education. Six years after precisely in August 1991, following the creation of Delta State by the Federal Government of Nigeria became a full fledged University offering the following:
1. Education
2. Arts
3. Social science
4. Pure Science
5. Medical science, and
6. Pharmacy
There is still Asaba campus of the University with the following:
1. Agriculture
2. Management Science, and
3. Environment Science
Oleh campus
1. Law
2. English
This is good for the educational development of the state especially as it seeks to satisfy the three senatorial districts of the state, such was expected of St. Thomas Teacher’s College, which as the first institution in the state should have been transformed to a Federal Polytechnic in the state, and not reduced to nothingness for no just reason thus making the labour of our colonial government past in appear in vain.
It is for this reason that I humbly implore the Government to upgrade the standard of the institution to a Federal Polytechnic status or at least restore it to its former status of a Teacher’s Training College because it has all it takes to be one, trusting that the government will ensure that we build and not destroy, cause progression and not regression, develop and not under-develop. The once glorious St. Thomas Teacher’s Training College once the pride of the region as the first institute must win back its glory.
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