By Sunday John
Lafia – Nasarawa State Government on Thursday said it would carry out survey of staff members and facilities in public primary and secondary schools with a view to repositioning the sector.
Hajia Fatu Sabo, the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology in the state, stated this during a fact-finding dialogue with education stakeholders in Lafia.
According to the Commissioner, Gov. Abdullahi Sule had already approved the survey to have a holistic statistics of both manpower and facilities for the purpose of planning for the sector.
Sabo explained that the survey would concentrate on taking inventory of teachers, securities, nannies, cooks and other cadre staff members in schools.
She added that the ministry would also take inventory of facilities to know where to do more by providing facilities to create a conducive environment for learning.
The commissioner noted that from Monday, Jan. 13, the ministry would embark on massive capacity building of workers to keep everybody abreast of his or her responsibility for the overall development of the sector.
“The capacities of directors, principals, teachers and other staff members would be built in line with their responsibilities to reposition the sector and make it one of the best in the country,” the Commissioner added.
She also explained that as parts of the initiative to strengthen the sector, the ministry would embark on massive enrollment drive campaign to ensure that ‘no child is left behind or out’.
“We would ensure that all out-of-school children including the girl-child, orphans and other vulnerable who are out of school are made to return,” she added.
The Commissioner assured the stakeholders that they would always be carried along in the implementation of any policy introduced by the government.
Umaru Ebeyan, Chairman of National Parents Teachers Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN), in his own contribution, said that the free education policy introduced by the previous government was responsible for the falling standard of education in the state.
He said that the declaration of free education since 2013 had hampered the support parents and other stakeholders were rendering to complement the government efforts at uplifting the standard of education in the state.
“We are the parents of the children, so, if the government really wants to regain the lost glory of education in the state it should abolish the policy and, instead, assist us in paying for external examinations for our children,” the Chairman added.
The State Chairman of All Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools, (ANCOPSS) Ogiri Christopher, appealed to government to reintroduce funding of schools.
He said it was to enable heads of schools to carry out certain urgent responsibility to ensure smooth running of schools.
He said that a situation where a head of school could not attend to emergency cases concerning the health of teachers and students and provide learning materials would not help the system.
The ANCOPSS Chairman, therefore, appealed to the government to urgently beef up security in schools given the increasing rate of insecurity in the country.
The meeting was attended by directors, supervisors, NAPTAN, representative of private schools, among others. (NAN)