Commissioners To Design New Roadmap For Education

Education commissioners in the South-East geo-poltical zone of the country will meet to consolidate on the Back-to-School programme for the boy-child, inaugurated by President Goodluck Jonathan recently.

The meeting is in line with the directive of the Federal Government for the immediate establishment of schools to bridge the boy-child education gap in the zone.

The Enugu State Commissioner for Education, Dr Simon Ortuanya, made this known in an interview  in Enugu, recently.

Ortuanya said the position of stakeholders would be articulated and a roadmap designed for the programme.

He explained that the states in the zone would educate the people on the setback suffered by the zone as a result of the reduction in rate of school enrolment of the boy-child.

The commissioner quoted Gov. Sullivan Chime of Enugu State as saying that the starting point for an improved boy-child education system in the zone was the re-introduction of boarding school.

“The whole concept of back-to-school is a realisation that something is wrong with the boy-child education, especially as it relates to the South East. “Having launched this programme, the first thing is for us to articulate our position, where do we go from here?

“We are hoping that we will have a meeting of the South East commissioners of education and also the stakeholders to design a road map. “We intend to have a coherent programme for the South East so it would not be disjointed so that the implementation will be uniform.

“Secondly, we are hoping to have an increased awareness of the challenge of the boy-child education in the South East.

“Governor  Sullivan Chime clearly stated that the starting point is for us to have boarding schools in the south east. “That way, children will be domiciled in the school compound and that will increase discipline.”

He called on youths in the zone to de-emphasise the quest for quick money and obtain quality education for the development of the zone and the country at large.

On first school leaving certificate examination, which was abandoned in the state some years ago, the commissioner said the abandonment was a policy challenge.

He said the challenge had been overcome, leading to plans by the state to conduct the examination in July.

He assured the citizens of the state that the ministry would continue to conduct the examination, as it was part of the national policy on education.