C-River reads riot act to sub-standard private schools

[MrVan]

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

CALABAR – CROSS River State Government, weekend, warned proprietors of poorly equipped schools in the state to upgrade them to the standard the state has approved or their schools will be closed down.

The Commissioner for Education, Prof. Offiong Offiong, who gave the warning at the inauguration of Mahanaim Secondary School in Calabar, said that lack of standard in the nation's post primary schools was responsible for the poor performance of students in the NECO and WAEC examinations.

Prof. Offiong expressed joy over the standard, dedication and commitment of the management of Mahanaim Secondary School towards providing all the necessary reading and learning facilities for the children and also consulting the ministry of education to ensure that right things were put in the right places for the school.

He said: "I'm also impressed with the vision which has so elaborately been translated into action and even with the mission statement of the proprietor and it gives us hope that we still have people who are ready to collaborate with the government towards ensuring that we give qualitative education to our children."

The Commissioner said that some private schools in the state were doing well in the provision of infrastructure for teaching and learning but warned that some of them that had refused to upgrade with the government standard would be closed down.

In his speech, Chairman of Mahanaim Schools, Mr. Byron Caiafas, noted that lack of qualitative education foundation has been responsible for the dwindling fortune of education in the country and the abysmal performance of students in examinations.

Caiafas said the school has all it takes to compete with any school in the world, adding: "If you go round the facilities you will see that it was properly planned, it was planned for the purpose of having the best on any educational facility."

Vanguard Nigeria