Two years later, he became a senior tutor at St. Paul's Teachers' Training College, Awka, Anambra State.
In 1946, after several constitutional changes allowing more Nigerians in the legislative chambers, he was nominated to the Eastern Nigeria House of Assembly and assigned to the ministry of education.
He did encounter resistance through much of the 1950s, when the Colonial Government repeatedly rejected his NUT recommendations to introduce uniform education in Nigeria.
Dr Ikoku still remains a great icon in Nigerian academic and educational development and one of the most outstanding educationists ever had in Nigeria.
Honours for his contribution to education in Nigeria include an honorary Doctorate in Law (1965) at a special convocation of the University of Ibadan, the establishment of the Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, a major road, Alvan Ikoku Way, in Maitama, Abuja (Capital of Nigeria) and his commemoration on a bill of Nigerian currency, the Ten Naira note.