The establishment of the Alvan Ikoku College of Education, Owerri in 1963, just three years after Nigeria’s independence was a milestone in the annals of education in Nigeria, especially the South-East. As an institution solely disposed to research, teaching and training teachers for both the intermediate and higher education sectors, the College has in the past fifty years contributed to the production of quality teachers in the country. In 1984, the College became affiliated with the University of Nigeria, Nsukka to award bachelor’s degree in various subject areas.
The College houses the students in hostels named alphabetically from A-G. The College has students from all over the country and several countries from West Africa, especially the Spanish-speaking countries whose citizens come to study English at the International Centre for English Studies (ICES). The College has a predominantly female student population with females making up over 80%. Consequently, the female volleyball team is one of the strongest in the Collegiate games in the country, consistently winning gold or silver in the Nigerian College of Education Games (NICEGA).
The Sandwich Programme caters to people pursuing a teaching career who want to improve their education. These students study during the holidays when the full-time Regular undergraduate students have vacated and primary and secondary schools are on break. The Sandwich system has enabled many teachers to get the relevant credentials to progress in the teaching profession. The students have a Student Union Government (SUG) led by an elected President and a Students Representative Council (SRC), a body of elected student legislators. In spite of the dominant female population, the SUG Presidents have mostly been males, except for 2019-2020 academic session when Comrade Ugonna Gloria Alozie won the Presidency.
The College runs demonstration centers. They are the Department of Early Childhood Care Kindergarten/Nursery School, the Department of Primary Education School, and the School of Education Demonstration Secondary School. The Primary School was set up in 1983 and the Secondary School started in October 1994. The demonstration centers were established to help teachers and students carry out their teaching practice activities, a major requirement for graduation, and to solve the educational needs of the staff and general public by providing professionally run schools at the three levels.
Schools in the College
The College has seven Schools which include the:
- School of Arts and Social Sciences
- School of Early Childhood and Primary Education
- School of General Education
- School of General Studies
- School of Languages
- School of Sciences
- School of Vocational and Technical Education
