By Sam Jones
YENAGOA (Sundiata Post) – Bayelsa State Government has urged operators of BayelsaPrime Project to intensify supervision and monitoring of teachers for improvement of the quality of education in the state.
The state government also called for introduction of measures to ensure the sustainability of the BayelsaPrime Project and adoption of the Output to Purpose Review (OPR) to assess teachers’ performance.
The Deputy Governor, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, gave the charge when he received officials of the BayelsaPrime Project in Government House, Yenagoa, on Tuesday, according to a statement by his media aide, Mr. Doubara Atasi.
He commended the team for their efforts towards educational development assuring that education remained a top government priority and it was the desire of the Prosperity Administration to see the project succeed.
Ewhrudjakpo said while the state government wanted the BayelsaPrime Project to outlive the present administration, it was important for the operators to ensure that its impact was felt at all times in the educational sector.
He stressed the need for strict monitoring attendance of teachers in public schools through fingerprinting as they are crucial to the success of Bayelsa Prime and policy objectives of the present administration for the sector.
Underscoring the significant role of manpower in any organisation, he noted that regardless of the level of technology involved in human activities, the importance of the human factor cannot be downplayed.
Ewhrudjakpo urged the BayelsaPrime operators not to rest on the successes recorded so far, but to pay attention to areas they needed to improve upon, particularly in the supervision of teachers.
His words: “We want to commend you for what you are doing. Education makes it easier for people to contribute to society and difficult for them to be manipulated.
“We do not wish the programme to end soon. However, we want sustainability. We want a situation whereby even if BayelsaPrime ends today, it leaves lasting legacies in the educational sector.
“Sustainability is the hallmark of every programme. While we commend you for what you are doing, we want you to make sure that it is sustainable and spreads across the entire state.
“I really want you to look at how we can monitor the teachers; that is a key area. Yes, the students are doing good, are the teachers doing good as well? A person who is being supervised works differently from those not being supervised.”
Earlier, Managing Director of BayelsaPrime, Mr. Linus Adaikwu, said the visit was to update Senator Ewhrudjakpo on the progress recorded so far in some of the pilot public primary schools in four local government areas of the state.
Adaikwu said BayelsaPrime has enhanced the reading capacity and literacy level of pupils as well as facilitated the enrollment of about 40,000 pupils through its “Come Back To School Campaigns”.
He added that efforts were underway to introduce the programme in the remaining local government areas of Southern Ijaw, Brass, Ekeremor and Nembe as well as secure international support for greater impact in the state.
