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By Stephen Adeleye.
The Kogi State Science Technical Education and Teaching Service Commission (STETSCOM), on Thursday inaugurated “Staff Information Management System (SIMS)”, for all secondary school staff in the state.
Mr Afolabi Raji, chairman of STETSCOM said at the inauguration in Lokoja, that SIMS contained relevant details of over 5000 staff of STETSCOM in 285 public secondary schools in 21 Local Government Areas of Kogi.
“SIMS is a comprehensive and robust database which contains relevant details and pictures of 5,178 teaching and non-teaching staff such as: name, age, gender, discipline, phone number, rank, teaching subject, among others.
“The database was created locally by a group of talented, young, dynamic and dedicated staff of the Agency; a clear evidence that STETSCOM Got Talents!,” Raji said.
He noted that the database showed that there was need to effectively redistribute teachers by the commission, saying many schools were understaffed while some were overstaffed in spite having few students.
“There is also the evident need to recruit more qualified teachers, engage NYSC for strategic deployment of corps members, and volunteers of N-Power Teach for effective teaching and learning,” Raji said.
He commended Gov. Yahaya Bello, for giving the management of the commission the opportunity to serve and make positive contributions to improve the quality of secondary school education in Kogi.
In her remarks, Dr Folashade Ayoade-Arike, Secretary to the State Government (SSG), commended the STETSCOM for the initiative, saying “data gives us opportunity to plan, know relevant details and take necessary action.
“I am more than excited to be here because the ministry of education is making achievement and progress in line with the New Direction Blueprint of Gov. Yahaya Bello.
“I want to assure the commissioner that the ministry will have the full support of the governor, and we will make the welfare of teachers our topmost priority’’.
She, however, expressed deep concern over the improper distribution of teachers across schools in the state, and directed the commission to do the necessary redistribution as soon as possible.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Mrs Rosemary Osikoya, said that the ministry had accomplished over 50 per cent of it set target on quality education as an aftermath of the Education Summit held on Jan. 14.
According to Osikoya, for the first-time the ministry’s Education Management Information System (EMIS) is functioning and running effectively under the leadership of Gov. Yahaya Bello led Government.
“There is no way you could talk about teachers’ welfare except you get the correct, accurate and reliable data, which guides policy making and intervention of the government.
“Education is too important to be turned into a battle ground for political actors, we must pay adequate attention to institutional policy and guidelines for governance,” she said.
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