The Deputy Governor of Rivers State, Dr. Ipalibo Harry Banigo, has urged science teachers in the state to help the Rivers child develop interest in the core science subjects.
The deputy governor stated this during a courtesy visit to her by members of the Rivers State chapter of the Science Teachers Association of Nigeria (STAN) at the Government House, Port Harcourt.
Banigo, who said she was pleased to note that a Rivers indigene, late Mr. Fenibo Ajumogobia, who taught Physics and Mathematics in Kings College, Lagos, as far back as 1957, was the founding father of the Science Teachers Association of Nigeria, also said that the STAN has put Rivers State on the global map.
The deputy governor, who expressed worries that children no longer have interest in Science and Mathematics, said ”These days, our children don’t seem to be interested in Science and Technology anymore.
“There is so much falling standard in Mathematics and engineering; it’s a bit saddening because that is the direction the whole world is going. Whatever you can do to propagate enhanced interest of our children in these core science subjects, government is ready to support you”, she said.
Banigo advised the science teachers to do more advocacy in churches, families and in any area they can to see that standards in the core subjects are brought up to speed in the schools.
She said teachers must go for training and retraining to equip themselves in order to impart knowledge that will enable the children compete favourably with their peers from other climes, stressing that teachers at all levels must avoid absenteeism and remain in the classrooms to teach the children.
According to Banigo, the education-loving Governor of Rivers State, Chief Nyesom Wike, has more or less declared an emergency in the education sector in order to reverse the backward trend education had suffered in the recent past.
“Our education-loving governor knows what it takes to improve education, having been a minister of education in the country himself; that is why he is renovating 175 primary schools, secondary schools, and has paid up the counter-part funding for the State Universal Primary Education Board, which was not paid for several years”, she disclosed.
Earlier, the Chairman of the Rivers State chapter of the Science Teachers Association of Nigeria (STAN), Mr. Amadi Ebenezer, had said the Rivers State chapter of the association will be hosting the STAN 60th Anniversary Conference in Port Harcourt between August 14th and 19th.
According to him, STAN is a non-profit making body with no religious bias, whose aim is focused in building the capacity of all Science, Technology, and Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) teachers through training and retraining programmes.
He acknowledged the developmental strides of the Wike-led administration, saying ”STAN joins well-meaning people to congratulate the governor for the giant strides in educational development of the state, especially regular payment of salaries of teachers and renovation works of some secondary schools with new facilities”.