The Minister of the FCT has again buttressed the importance of celebrating excellence among deserving staff and students in the educational sector of the Federal Capital Territtory as it is a logical step in the pursuit of excellence in the educational sector of the FCT.
The Minister, Mallam Mohammadu Musa Bello made this known when welcoming stakeholders to a very important occasion celebrating excellence exhibited by one of the staff and also one of the critical stakeholders: the proprietress of one of the private schools in Abuja.
The Minister emphasized that by now we all have acknowledged 2020-2021 as a remarkable year for everyone in the educational sector, in every regard, positive and negative. Although, the crisis has been more than any we have ever seen in our lifetime, it is a forgone conclusion that the covid-19 pandemic was beyond a health crisis, the socio-economic implications are more far reaching especially in the health sector which was the focus of the deliberation on excellence while celebrating the staff and proprietress of the private who made the FCT proud with their achievements while pursuing excellence.
The Minister, in his well analytic submission, stated his administrations stance and policies in the educational sector all geared towards the pursuit and attainment of excellence through education in the FCT.
He admitted we already have a crisis of sorts in the educational sector, but the pandemic which resulted in many schools being shut down to embrace virtual learnings has unmasked the ineptitudes and deepened the existing problems in the educational sector. This made this occasion to celebrate our very own more worth celebrating. As part of activities to celebrate excellence in education in the FCT a crop of brilliant minds in the education sector in the territory gathered to celebrate and deliberate on the importance and challenges in the education sector and the way forward.
The Minister who set the tone said the deliberation is not about looking back, it is about the future, and the future is now. We have to acknowledge the main endowment of this, and indeed any country is the people. He made it very clear that this generation of young minds needs to be prepared for a world that thinks and operates differently.
The Minister expressed joy that as a beneficiary of excellence in educational attainments and upbringing built on the foundation of perseverance, dedications and honesty, said that this time honoured principles should continue to be the hallmark of the pursuit of excellence in the educational sector of the FCT.
He emphasize that education in simple language made some of them to be where they are today because through education they have acquired knowledge and skills to become capable people ready and able to contribute to the society.
This, he said, presupposes that education is not an end in itself, it is a means to an end.
The Minister reiterated that what he is really saying is that education is now regarded as the passports to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepares for it today.
He agreed that that any educational systems that produces ignorant people is to say the least a useless one and must be rejected by all because it is knowledge that guides the skills that we acquired. He said acquisition of skills must be supported by the acquisition of knowledge in order to produce responsible citizens.
Knowledge, he said, should be a tool to create awareness and enlightenment in people. This enlightenment makes us good citizens and a good citizen is the one who uses his or her skills wisely and for the benefit of the society.
The permanent secretary of the ministry who was instrumental to the occasion celebrating excellence in the educational sector in the FCT said the occasion was timely as it was used to celebrate those who made the FCT proud by achieving excellence and also a time to look into the future with the critical stakeholders in the educational sector of the territory on the attainment of excellence.
He said that those who pursue education must pursue one goal and that is they must achieve excellence. Indeed, achieving excellence in education is a very noble goal of this administration that must be pursued as a policy because it now recognises that it is the most important step in building a progressive and prosperous country.
He reminded the recipients of the excellence recognition that achievement is about accomplishments and excellence is a quality that surprises ordinary standards.To achieve excellence in education he says is to accomplish or attain the best in education and only the best is good for everbody and the society.
The topic put forward for deliberation at the occasion by stakeholders includes, how to achieve excellence looking forward in the educational sector of the FCT.
The stakeholders agreed that to achieve excellence in education certain things must be done or seen to be done.The first thing that must be done by all stakeholders in the sector is to make the pursuit of excellence the number one priority and objective. By so doing it commits both the staffs and the students to work harder to meet the higher standards. There must be a commitments to become the best among equals.
They emphasized that the setting up of the first objective will automatically lead to the second objectives which is the need to increasing students achievements.
Stakeholders agreed that the achievement of the second objectives is a necessary and sufficient conditions for the attainments of the first objectives by stakeholders. Without these objectives the stakeholders and the institutions they represent cannot measure its performance and cannot therefore achieve excellence. Increasing students achievements will create confidence in both the staffs and the students to achieve more and that is the ministry’s goal for the educational sector of the FCT.
The third objective set by the stakeholders is to close the gap in students achievements especially between boys and girls and the fourth and last objectives is what they are doing now-the involvements of all stakeholders to create the enabling environment for the attainment of excellence in education in the Federal Capital Territtory.
The stakeholders commended the leadership of the ministry of the FCT led by the able Minister for his concern for education and the pursuit of education and called for a yearly repeat of this deliberative session by major stakeholders to take stock of improvements made in the pursuit of educational excellence in the FCT.
They also agreed that the quality of the human resources of every country is undoubtedly one of the most important and valued resource through which that country can develop and achieve a competitive advantage in this global world of ours that is characterized by competition, fair or unfair, information and high quality research etc and the FCT is not an island so the import of its pursuit of excellence cannot be a misplaced priority.
The highlight of the event is the commendation given to those who have done the FCT proud at the National level.
They also commended all the leadership and staff of the education secretariat, including their agencies, the secondary school education board, as well as the quality assurance unit under the guidance of the permanent secretary for making the event possible.
The education secretary introduced the award winning duo, the best administrator, public schools, Mr Nuhu Musa. He is the principal, Government secondary school, Kubwa, popularly known as black and white.The proprietress of blooming heritage schools in Lokongoma emerging as the third position private schools in Nigeria, was also introduced and applauded by stakeholders.
The principal of GSS, Kubwa who requested for a brand new hall was promised by the authorities that the next budget would take care of it.
– Jamila Musa wrote from Abuja.
