Ekiti Insists On Improved Standard Of Education

Deputy Governor Of Ekiti State, Mrs. Funmi Olayinka (Middle), Discussing With the SSG, Dr. Ganiyu Owolabi (L) And Hon Commissioner For Education, Science And Technology, Dr. Eniola Ajayi During The Advocacy Meeting Of Ekiti State Government With Stakeholders in The Education Sector at Jibowu Hall, Ado-Ekiti.

The Ekiti state government has reiterated its commitment to doing all within the ambits of the law to ensure that it continues to be the model for other states in the attainment of the highest possible standard in education.

Deputy Governor of the state, Mrs. Funmi Olayinka who spoke at the closing of the stakeholders meeting on Teachers Development Needs Assessment, said the government was bothered by the dwindling fortune of education in a state that had hitherto pride itself as the Fountain of Knowledge.

While appealing to the stakeholders, especially parents and teachers to join hands with the government of Dr. Kayode Fayemi towards fixing the rot in the sector, she assured the teachers that the competency tests being planned for teachers by the government must not being seeing as a punitive measure, but rather as a means of identifying the areas where attentions are needed.

Olayinka who said the government was determined to provide functional and qualitative education to people of the state, explained that the tests “is for us to fix the rot and not to destroy any career, as a first step to bringing back the lost glory of education in Ekiti”.

Earlier in a presentation, the State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Dr. (Mrs) Eniola Ajayi, said the Teachers
Development Needs Assessment (TDNA) is a means of quality control aimed at bringing the desired improvement to the education sector in the state.

According to her, TDNA will also offer the ministry the opportunity for strategic training and capacity building for the teachers, and
would become a basis for advising Universities and Colleges of Education about training needs.

While accepting that the sector abhors certain rots that needed be fixed, the teachers under the aegis of the Nigerian Union of Teachers
(NUT), are opposed to the idea of being subjected to writing competency tests, claiming that the idea is to humiliate teachers in the presence of their pupils.

Last modified: April 20, 2012