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The rot in the Federal Capital educational sector has been a source and is still giving a serious concern to the authorities of the FCT. Rather than allowing the sad situation to overwhelm it, the administration is not leaving anything to chances to redress the unacceptable situation
Over a month ago, the Secretary of Education in the FCT, Ms Bolanle Onagoruwa had expressed shock at the standard of education in the Federal Capital while bemoaning the continuous woeful performance of Federal Capital secondary school students in qualifying examinations, such as WASSC, GCE and NECO.
This unenviable position the city occupies in the educational assessment of states in the country was again brought to the fore recently, when it was revealed that 92 primary schools in the city had no classrooms.
Consequently, 25,872 pupils are currently learning under various trees in and around the Abuja areas.
Ms Onagoruwa who took over in the education department in last February, lamented that the shortage of teachers in the schools, saying with 5,395 primary schools, it has a ratio of one teacher to 54 pupils far as against the projected ratio of one teacher to 19 pupils.
With 2,618 classrooms for 5,395 pupils, the Education secretary stated that the FCT has been operating a system of one classroom to 110 pupils, a situation she described as unacceptable to the Federal Capital administration.
She maintained that of the 5,033 candidates that sat for the WASSCE in 2005, only 1,391 passed the exams with just five credits representing 20 percent of the total number. Of the number of those that passed, she added, just 514 candidates representing a meager 10 percent had credits in English and Mathematics.
€œThe gloomy picture is replicated at the Junior Secondary School level where 13,043 pupils who sat for the JSSCE, only 7,097 passed at first sitting, Ms Onagoruwa stressed.
To redress the situation, the Education secretary disclosed that her department had conveyed a summit of the Education Stakeholders in Abuja and has arrived on a number of measures that solve the myriads of problems besetting the sector.
According to her, a sum of N879 million is being made available immediately to tackle the problem of infrastructures, through maintenance and renovation of the existing ones and construction of others.
Specifically, she explained that more classrooms are already being constructed at all levels while about 700 teachers have also been recruited for specialised subjects to stem the problem of the dearth of teachers in some subjects.
Ms Onagoruwa disclosed that while discipline will henceforth be enforced in the schools, instructional materials will also be provided, assuring that the result of the next examinations would surely show a marked improvement.
By FRANCIS AWOWOLE-BROWNE, Abuja
Monday, September 11, 2006
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