The Kwara State Governor, His Excellency, Mallam Abdul Rahman Abdul Razaq has said that inspite of the paucity of funds in the midst of competing demands and subsidy remover era, His Administration will continue to give priority attention to all issues affecting the Education Sector at all levels.

The Governor gave this indication when he visited the Kwara State College of Arabic and Islamic Legal Studies, (CAILS), Ilorin to assess the level of infrastructural challenges confronting the College.

The Governor further encouraged the Management of the Institution not to relent in her determination to make the College a Centre of Academic Excellence and a springboard of professionalism. He however lauded the Management of the College for her steadfastness towards the maintenance of the College infrastructure and its development accordingly.

The Commissioner for Ministry of Tertiary Education (MOTE) Dr. Mary Arinde had expressed confidence that the visit of the Governor will herald the much-needed infrastructural development and other sundry issues in the Institution.

The Provost intimated to the Governor that the College had long stopped from receiving Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETfund.) since 2013 due to the fact that the College was regarded as Monotechnics which had been affecting the infrastructural development of the College.

Speaking earlier, the Ag.Provost appealed to the Governor for the release of accreditation fund in respect of affiliation with University of Ilorin and the provision of utility vehicles among other needs.

He enumerated the challenges as follows:

1. Accreditation grants for the proposed degree courses/programmes in affiliation with University of Ilorin to the tune of N35,000,000.00 (Thirty-Five Million Naira Only) yet to be released by the State Government.
2. Reaccreditation grant for the only two ND programmes, Accounting and Computer Science.
3. Renaming of the College to enable it accommodate more academic programmes and improve ' population in order to generate more IGR.
4. Shortage of infrastructural facilities such as staff offices. In fact, the entire building housing Schools of Languages and Arts and Islamic Studies requires immediate total renovation. More particularly, now that we are in the raining season. The whole building is leaking and become inhabitable to the staff.
5. Dwindling students' population due to the establishment of many private similar institutions as approved by the State Government. He further submitted that this development also contributed to the dwindling revenue to augment subvention for the payment of salaries, other staff entitlements and runnings of the College.
6. Lack of Perimeter Fencing.
7. The need for the rehabilitation/Tarring of the network of roads within the College.>/li>
8. Lack of Official Vehicles for Principal Officers. Although, the State Government, through our parent Ministry, has approved the procurement of official cars for the Principal Officers, but yet to receive financial backing.
9. Lack of transmitter for Radio and Television Studios of the College.

Furthermore, the Ag. Provost dwelled on efforts of the Management toward the said challenges that,

"As part of the College Management's efforts to get the College out of the problems, we have embarked on aggressive publicity to market the College to the general public through various Media platforms.

To also improve human capacity building, both the teaching and non- teaching staff are encouraged to go for further studies with pay.

Entrepreneurship initiatives

Enhancement of the efficiency of our academic operations through a dedicated email service exclusively for academic staff. Workshop have been organised in this respect.

Improvement in our Internet Centre.

Efforts on top gear to expand the College programmes. In this regard, collaborative effort is ongoing between the College and a private Polytechnic to use its platform to run more programmes in National Diploma.

In conclusion and this is on a very sad note. While we are enjoying the contributions and cooperation of the Academic Staff Union through useful suggestions and participation of ASU, their counterparts are engaging in bringing in unrest that may serve as a cog in the wheel of progress. We are not however going to let this deter us in our commitment.

Thank you Sir."

The Governor later took a facility tour of the College to better appreciate the challenges confronting the institution.

While inspecting the said facilities, The Governor said that “The facility inspection will help us as a Government to be able to assess what is on ground and the rot in our Schools with a view to taking measures against compromising standards.