From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Federal Government said it has commenced upgrade of infrastructures in senior secondary schools in Nigeria to meet up with the global trend of teaching and learning environment.
The government said the intervention mission which will be done through the Federal Ministry of Education will be in some selected schools starting with some senior secondary schools in Kogi State.
It said at more attention would be paid on infrastructures, laboratories, libraries, teachers empowerment, and other steps that would significantly improve standards in the schools.
Fatima Bappare, head of Press and Public Relations, National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC), in a statement, noted that the Executive Secretary of the Commission, Dr. Iyela Ajayi, announced the commencement of the intervention at a recent meeting with officials of Kogi State government led by the Commissioner of Education, Wemi Jones.
She said Dr. Ajayi, in the meeting, lamented the deplorable state of laboratories, infrastructure, libraries across most senior secondary schools in Nigeria, and assured Kogi state officials of NSSEC intervention in these areas in no distance time.
He was optimistic that NSSEC’s proposed minimum standard will significantly reposition senior secondary education, which had suffered neglect and deterioration in terms of staffing, infrastructure and laboratories equipment, thus leading to the production of poor quality of students.
Dr. Ajayi emphasised on the Commission’s commitment in training and retraining of teachers in their various subjects to enable them impact the right knowledge on the students, and position them for global impact.
He also recognised the fact the education is on the concurrent legislative list, hence he solicited strong support and collaborations from state governments to accomplish the desire and mission of NSSEC.
Kogi State Commissioner for Education, Jones, in his remarks, commended the Federal Government for the establishment of NSSEC to regulate senior secondary schools education, and assured that Kogi State government is committed to seeing the growth of education in the state, hence the upward review of the education budget in the state to 30 per cent.
He also noted that the state government is working towards establishing more senior secondary schools in every local government within the first four years of the administration to enhance the accessibility of senior secondary schools in the local government levels.
He further made known the commitment of the state government in ensuring that the out-of- school children challenge is reduced to a barest minimum by the state effort in declaring free education with the payment of WAEC, NECO, JAMB, NABTEB, JUNIOR WAEC examinations.
He then assured the NSSEC boss that the state will surpass every minimum standard that the commission would set as a bench mark for all senior secondary schools in the country.