Abia State Ministry of Education has embarked on reforms in the education sector to restore the quality and standard of teaching and learning in the state.
The State Commissioner for Education, Kanelechi Nwangwa who disclosed this to journalists in his office during an interview said,it will not be business as usual for operators of private schools as the state government is set to clamp down on schools that operate in makeshift apartments as well as those operating without approval from the state government.
This, he said will help in stemming the tide of proliferation of substandard private schools in the state and insisted that there is no going back in closing down of substandard schools in the State.
According to the Commissioner, the state government will embark on massive supervision of schools across the state to ensure that the schools allowed to operate are living up to expectation and substandard schools remain closed.
Dr. Nwangwa further disclosed plans by the state government to introduce a Central Promotional Examination where students in both public and private schools in the state would be mandated to sit for yearly promotion examination pointing out that it will eradicate the issue of mass promotion in schools.
He said the state government has also embarked on training and retraining of teachers in the state to enhance their capacity and productivity, in addition to maintaining regular payment of teachers’ salaries in the State as bottlenecks in the junior and secondary schools has been settled.
The Commissioner noted that renovations and rehabilitation work are currently ongoing in government owned schools across the state to enable them resume fully on Monday next week for the continuation of the 2019/2020 academic year.
He said that the state government is poised to maintain it’s lead in WAEC and other examinations as well as ensure quality educational standards.
