By Stephen Olufemi Oni, Ilorin
The Chairman, Board of the National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC), Ambassador Nimota Akanbi, has reiterated that the Commission would continue to intervene in critical areas of needs of the senior secondary schools across the federation, while also prescribing and sustaining minimum standards.
The NSSEC Board Chairman, who stated this in Abuja at the end of a two-day retreat for members of the Governing Board of the Commission, added that they are also committed to promoting institutional partnerships and collaborations on funding for all secondary schools in the country.
“Aside the federal government, funding is also expected to come from the state governments, private sector, international development partners and donor organisations towards improving funding of senior secondary schools in the country,” Ambassador Akanbi added.
She also promised that the Board would develop a robust Management Information System (MIS) that would capture all relevant data relating to senior secondary schools in the country.
She said: “We are committed to adopting the Public Private Partnership model in solving some of the existing challenges within senior secondary education sub-sector.”
According to her, the Board is also committed to deliberately promoting STEAM and TVET across all senior secondary schools in Nigeria, adding that the Board has developed a national policy towards bringing the country’s senior secondary education at par with their foreign counterparts.
Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of the Commission, Prof. Benjamin Abakpa, said the Commission has embarked on measures that would ensure that state governments produce quality teachers in their senior secondary schools.
Abakpa expressed worries over teacher/students ratio in public schools, saying that the Commission is in collaboration with state governments to resolve the problems.
According to him, teachers are the foundation for the success of their students, while the quality of learning depends on the quality of teachers, adding that what the Board has done is to refresh and retrain the teachers in the various states, starting with the master trainer and with time it would transcend the lower level.
The Executive Secretary disclosed that the Commission is set to intervene in critical areas in the state and once the board has the resources, the deficit would be taken care of with a view to having quality teachers across the country’s senior secondary schools.
The Board has also expressed its readiness to monitor the age brackets of students entering into senior secondary schools with a view to making them self reliant after graduation from Senior Secondary Schools
