History of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (IAUE), Port Harcourt

At the end of the civil war in 1970,
the Rivers State Government was faced with anacute shortage of trained
teachers for
its rapidly expanding programme of
post-primary education. In view of this, a
committee was appointed by the
Ministry of Education to examine the problem and to make
necessary recommendations on the
establishment of an Advanced Teacher Training College.
The report of the committee stressed
the need to invest much energy in the right directions to ensure that
the schools in Rivers State did not face the danger of either collapsing
or producing students who would be worth nothing on their graduation.
After the required spade work by the Ministry of Education, Rivers State
College of Education opened in temporary quarters at the Catholic
Mission’s Stella Maris College, Port Harcourt on 14th June, 1971 with an
initial intake of 116 students, under the headship of Dr. William
Maxwell Jnr., a USAID representative then serving in the State.