Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All, CSCEFA, has called for an Education Summit of stakeholders to salvage primary Education in Kogi state from total collapse.
According to the spokesperson of the coalition, Mr. Titus Alonge, who made the call yesterday in Lokoja to mark the 2014 Day of the Africa Child, DAC, themed, “A Child-Friendly Quality, Free and Compulsory Education for All Children in African,” the basic education in the state has degraded, and most of the institutions are turning out half-baked graduates.
He noted that CSACEFA only recently undertook an in-depth analysis of the impasse between the State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB and primary schools teachers in the state and decided to intervene softly.
Stressing that the frequent closure of schools as a result of non-payment of the teachers’ salaries is having a devastating impact on the education of children of the poor, especially the girl-child, Alonge posited that there is need to end it.
While adding that access to free, compulsory and quality education for children should not be compromised, he said as an interim measure, the SUBEB should monitor the proliferation of private nursery and primary schools in the state to ensure that the schools were established in line with approved basic education school standards.
The civil society chieftain said that CSACEFA had observed that the professional conduct and delivery of some teachers in primary schools is questionable.
He therefore urged that their credentials be verified from the issuing institutions to ascertain its authenticity, and ensure that only qualified teachers remained to teach in the schools to avoid half-baked pupils.
Earlier, Mr. Victor Adejoh, Project Manager of the ActionAid Nigeria and Executive Director, Participation Initiative for Behavioural Change in Development, PIBCID, has implored the state government to prioritise basic education.
The coalition also appealed to the state government to adopt the Voluntary Teachers Model of Lagos State, which is being adopted by other states to fill the quality teachers’ need-gap; just as he called on teachers to resume classes as soon as issues relating to their salaries are settled.
