Setting minimum standards for SSS will reposition education -Ajayi

The Executive Secretary, National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC), Dr Iyela Ajayi, has said that setting approved minimum standards for senior secondary school will reposition education in the country.

Ajayi said this while delivering his keynote address during the Southern Zone Critique of the Zero Draft Minimum Standards for Senior Secondary Education in Nigeria workshop on Friday in Uyo.

He said that the workshop was organised for stakeholders in the education sector to brainstorm and come up with approved standards for senior secondary schools in the country.

The executive secretary added that getting a minimum standard for senior secondary schools aimed at ensuring that there is uniformity in the operation of senior secondary education by all operators.

“We are gathered here today to critique the draft National Minimum Standards of Senior Secondary Education in Nigeria and this exercise is for critical stakeholders in the southern zone.

“We had earlier held the first workshop on the same issue at Bauchi to cover the Northern zone of the country.

“When approved and implemented, the minimum standards would set benchmarks for all aspects of senior secondary education in Nigeria.

“The national minimum standards would play an important and critical role in the repositioning of senior secondary education in Nigeria,” Ajayi said.

Ajayi noted that if anything goes wrong with secondary education, there will be problems at the tertiary institutions, and therefore the need for the workshop to set a benchmark for secondary education in the country.

He urged stakeholders and participants to critique zero draft Zero draft minimum standards for senior secondary education to ensure they produce an acceptable standard for the nation.

He urged state governments to cooperate with the Federal Government in ensuring a quality standard of education by paying their counterpart funding regularly.

In her remarks, the Akwa Ibom Deputy Governor, Sen. Akon Eyakenyi, said that there was a need to revisit the quality of education to fix the country right.

Eyakenyi added that education is the heart of socio-economic development, adding that no country will grow above the quality of its education.

She said that there is a need to regulate the education system in the country to improve the standard and quality of personnel, infrastructure and curriculum.

“If we sincerely want to fix Nigeria, we must re-visit our school system with a view to establishing certain irreducible minimum standards in the quality of personnel, infrastructures and curriculum.

“Education is the heart of our socio-economic development. We can’t grow beyond the quality of our school system. 

“The giant strides recorded by developed nations of the World are always traceable to their school system.

“Considering its importance, why can’t our education sector be as rigorously regulated as the banking, aviation and other sectors?” Eyakenyi said.

The Commissioner for Education, Mrs Idongesit Etiebet, said that minimum standards for secondary school would help students with qualitative and quantitative learning anywhere in the country.

Etiebet said that the Akwa Ibom Government would partner with the commission to ensure that quality minimum standards are achieved.

She added that the State Government will be diligent in the payment of its counterpart funding to ensure qualitative education in the state.