Dissatisfied by the continuous poor performance of primary and secondary school students in kogi state in the national and regional examinations, the president of Ebira Must Be Better, EMBB, group comrade Danfulani Ohinoyi Lukman yesterday urged the state government to declare a state of emergency in the education sector.
In a statement made available to newsmen in Lokoja, the group also urged the state government in Kogi state to
go beyond declaring a state of emergency and invest more in the education sector by making available enough funds
and materials that would enhance teaching and learning in the state.
The group, in it stakeholders meeting in Lokoja yesterday, said: “We also urge that this should go beyond just mere declaration, requiring the state to come up with bold initiatives and corresponding funding and the deployment of transparent and accountable mechanisms for the utilisation of the funds for the sector.”
They observed that “one of the ways we can assess the commitment of the state governments in developing and
promoting the state of education in the state is the performance of their indigenes in different national and
regional examinations.”
The statement added: “If this stands to be a reliable yardstick, then we can loudly say Kogi State need to be more committed so that we can begin to see appreciable performance of the indigenes of the states in those examinations.
“In the 2015 WAEC May/June result released in the first quarter of last year, Kogi State almost came last with only 946 (7.37%) candidates obtaining five credits and above including English and Mathematics out of the 14, 748
students, comprising 8, 807 males and 5,977 females, that sat for the examination in the state.
“Apart from the disheartening performance of Kogi State, none of the North-Central states made it to the best 10
performing states in the ranking.”
The statement was jointly signed by Danfulani Ohinoyi Lukman, president Ebira must be better, Abdullahi Hakeem, Information Technology and Development expert (ITAD), Abuja; Aishatu Abdullahi, Kogi Coalition for Democracy and Progress (KOCODEP), Kogi; James Johnson, Centre for Environmental Education and Development (CEED), Kogi; Mayaki Amina, Association of People Living with Disability, Abuja; Aishatu Hamid, Women and Youth Empowerment for Advancement and Health Initiative (WYEAHI), Abuja; Kareem Abel, Kogi Coalition for Improvement of Public Expenditure Management (BACIPEM), Nasarawa; Angela Ohiku, Network of Civil Society Organisations, Kogi; Dauda Mohammad, North-central Youth Initiative Forum(NEYIF), Nasarawa; Asma`u
Aminu, Centre for Women and Adolescent Empowerment, Abuja; and Abdulrahman Abdulrazak, Society and the Future, Abuja.
