RESEARCH

A Brief History of the Directorate of Research and Development of the Federal College of Education (Technical), Gombe, Gombe State, Nigeria.

The Research and Development Directorate started as a committee in the 1997 headed by Chief E. T. Fadeyi of the School of Education of the College. The underlying philosophy of the Research and development (R&D) is to midwife the growth of a research-oriented college community, especially, among the academic staff members to Centre of Excellence and a citadel of cutting-edge research for the benefit of the college and the prosperity of the Nigerian nation in general. The committee`s immediate responsibility among others was to inspire the staff members, stir up research instincts, imbue the spirit of creativity and instigate the hunger for academic researching.

It instructive to mention that R & D was frontal for providing enabling environment for academic research and academic paper writing for publication either for personal development or publishing for promotion an easy task.  The daring posture of R & D in its drive to effortlessly dispel the myth in which the “Publish and Perish” was shrouded and the palpable fear that pervaded the academic ambience endeared it to the academic class of the college.

Consequent upon the cardinal roles R & D played in the wee days of published or perish, R&D has since then been enjoying periodic transformational changes in terms of structural organization and administrative metamorphosis from being and ordinary unit to a full-fledged directorate and a hob of academic research today. R & D has experienced a series of developmental leaps under the erudite leadership of some of the finest academics with high sense of purpose and administrative acumen that piloted its affairs from its birth to maturity.

The successive streak of the R & D leadership over the years can be chronicled in the following order:

 However, within his reign, R & D grew from strength to strength, securing different shades of research grants, ranging from the Institution Based Research (IBR) to National Research Fund (NRF) and development of several manuscripts to books for staff members. Within the tenure of Dr. Tunde Gabriel,  R & D got a face-lift from being a mere committee to a Directorate of its own, now under the leadership of a Chartered Accountant in the person of Dr. Ishaq Mohammed Ahmed.

In general, Research and Development Directorate has the following statutory mandates among others:

1. To inculcate academic writing ability and encourage researching among staff members,
2. To organize articles and research works by staff member for processing by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND),
3. To organize training workshops and capacity building workshops in special areas such as computer literacy, knowledge of the use of statistical soft-wares for research data analysis etc.
4. Organizing conferences with captivating themes on burning national issues,
5. To organize workshops on acquisition of skills in writing grant-wining research proposals,
6. To monitor and carry out evaluation of research projects by staff members,
7. To assist prospective authors, develop manuscripts into books,
8. To organize and facilitate proposals by staff members for onward transmission to the TETFUND for consideration for approval.
9. Facilitating the publication of the college`s academic journal Gombe Technical Education Journal (GOTEJ) through the processes of advertising, collecting, assessing, organizing academic research articles from the academic public space.

It is heart-warming to mention that the R & D has record great success in these areas as it has been delivering on its mandates. Evidence of the exploits of the R & D is abound. The Academic Journal Project seem, however, to have top the table in the list of achievements of the R&D. The college journal, GOTEJ being run by R&D is now online. A visit to gotejfcetgombe2019@gmail.com avail one of all its publications. and A brief profile of publications of the GOTEJ is as presented below:

LIST OF GOMBE TECHINCAL EDUCTION JOURNAL FROM 1997 – 2022

CLICK FOR MORE OF GOMBE TECHINCAL EDUCATION JOURNAL

CLICK HERE FOR THE LIST OF ONGOING AND COMPLETED FUNDED INSTITUTIONAL BASED-RESEARCH

About eight-nine (89) researches have been completed between the inception of IBR projects in 2009 to date. Only a few months ago, the last stream of the twin sixteen-member researchers for both Batch 6 (2016-2018) (merged) TETFUND Research Projects Intervention and Batch 7 (2019-2020) (Merged) TETFUND Intervention in Research Projects completed the project tenure with TETFUND and have since been paid their balance of 40%. These batch of researchers experienced some delay in the execution of the projects and consummation of the deals. The delay was orchestrated by the national lock-down for the struggle to curtail COVID-19 pandemic.

In the area of manuscript development, several manuscripts have also been developed into books. Examples of such projects are the under listed:

1. Educational Psychology of Human Learning by M. M. Bododo and H. I. Okonkwo,
2. Basic Electricity & Electronics by Dr. Abbas Gimba and Ahmed Mu`azu
3. Systematic Review: What, When and How by Fr. Ahmed Aliyu Palladan
4. Fundamental Mathematics for Tomorrow by G. A. Abimbola et al.,
5. Introduction to Computer II by Wallace Ebinum, Haruna Chiroma, Usman Abdullahi Ali, Jacob Philip and Grace Emmanuel Anorue.

However, number of manuscripts are already in the press awaiting the finishing touches of the publishers. The list below provides a picture of such manuscripts:

1. A Handbook of Commerce for Teaching Institutions by: A. A. Palladan, M. A. Ahmed & V. Ayuba.
2. A New Perspectives to Business and Entrepreneurship Studies Editted by: G. B. Bello, M. S. Aliyu, I. Shittu, S. A. Ahmed & A. Abdulrahman.
3. Introduction to Financial Accounting by: Daniel Abdullahi Nkukumah, Umar Abdulkadir & Garba Tela.
4. A Functional Approach to Human Learning for Universities and Colleges of Education by: C. C. Ngwake.
5. Chemistry Practical for A-Level Students by: Audu Haruna Sympa, Professor Aishatu Maigari, Muhammed Sani Sambo & Omolade Ojo.

In the national frontier, some individuals have also been awarded the National Research Fund (NRF) projects and have since completed and retired same to the Fund in the years under review.

CURRENT TRENDS IN THE DIRECTORATE OF R&D

At the moment, the directorate is busy with the monitoring exercise of the Batch 8 (2019-2022) (Merged) TETFUND Intervention in Research Project. The researchers in this category are thirty-four (34) in number at various stages of their research work. Before long, these group of researchers will be filling in for the final tranche of the fund. In addition, the Batch 9 is patiently waiting in the wings to join the fray as their proposals have reached advanced stages of the series of electronic, internal and external assessment.  The proposals have all been subjected to TURNITIN (Plagiarism Check) with all copies of the internal and external assessors` reports received. The final copies of their proposals are due for onward transmission to TETFUND in a matter of days.

Furthermore, about six (6) manuscripts have also been forwarded to the Directorate of Research and Development with both internal and external assessors` report handy for further actions. The Directorate without wasting time, after due evaluation and re-evaluation will advance same to the publishers for the assignment of International Standard Book Number (ISBN). This is aside a good number of articles being collected for the Volumes 15 and 16 (Nos 1&2), amidst the ongoing distribution of Volumes 13 and 14 (Nos 1&2) of the College Academic Journal, Gombe Technical Education Journal (GOTEJ). There is therefore, no doubt that the Directorate of R & D has its hands full of research related activities.

Closely following aforementioned series of programs, the R&D has also written to seek the permission of the Provost for planned Seminar Series for the college. The Seminar Series is one of the numerous mandates of the R&D that provides a stage for the various schools of the college to organize seminars. The seminar series provides opportunity for the experienced Staff members to sharpen their skills of research paper writing and paper presentation while, the not too experience ones learn and gain more experience. This helps to pre-expose the inexperience in the realm of public paper presentation and make them gain confidence in themselves before their audience and be used to critiquing as a harbinger for quality writing. There is therefore, no gainsaying the fact that the Directorate is poised  and equipped to advancing and entrenching the culture of research in the college being an academic institution, considering the favorable atmosphere for operation coupled with the unwavering support and encouragement from the college management and, of course, the so many interventions provided by TETFUND at its disposal.