By Sharon Ivovi
The Executive Chairman of the State Universal Education Board (SUBEB), Hon. Samuel Mariere has initiated a stakeholders meeting with education Secretaries, traditional rulers, president generals of communities, school heads and school based management committees across the 25 Local Government Areas of the State as part of efforts by the board to improve the quality of education in public primary Schools in the State.
Hon. Mariere who commenced the stakeholders interaction at Uvwie Local Government Area, yesterday, has proposed some policies to ensure a sustainable and more greater quality of education in public primary schools.
According to the SUBEB boss, the new policy thrust would be pivotal in ensuring that the public primary School system which he said was the cradle of education, would have a new lease of life and return to it’s pride of place, considering the enormous resources invested into the sub sector by Government.
The Executive Chairman while addressing stakeholders, disclosed that the Board would soon commence the process of upgrading Senior Head Teachers on salaries grade level 15 to supervisory and mentoring roles at the Local Education Authority (LEA).
According to Hon. Mariere, the initiative would give room for ‘younger’ head teachers to head schools, saying that it was abnormal for subordinates to oversee and supervise their superiors, which he noted was the current practice.
Hon Mariere who also disclosed that head teachers who had overseen the affairs of a school for more than four years, should brace up for posting in line with extant rules and regulations. This he said was part of the policy to rejig the system.
As part measures to curb vandalisation of school infrastructure, the executive Chairman of the board, emphasized the need for communities to take ownership of the schools within their domains through the School Based Management Committee (SBMC’s) made up of head teachers, parent teacher association, and community leaders.
While reminding the SBMC’s of their core mandate of tackling vandalism, which according to the chairman had been a disturbing trend in public schools, called on them to rise up to their responsibility by checkmating other anomalies in schools such as nonchalance and desertion of duties by the teachers.
“We would also handover schools to communities for easy access and immediate solutions to the myriad of problems encountered in these schools. The SBMC’s would be the backbones of these schools. SUBEB spends a lot in the construction of schools but vandalism has threatened a near collapse of the system because when there is no ownership of government properties, it becomes nobody’s property” he said.
He further revealed that under his watch, communities where SUBEB projects were vandalized, would not enjoy Government patronage for ten years as far as new project was concerned as according to him, available resources would be allocated to other communities who lived up to government expectations.
Earlier, in a welcome remarks by the Education Secretary of Uvwie Local Government Authority, Dcns Racheal Onoyake, lauded the executive chairman and his team for the visit, even she promised to up their game through proper supervision of teachers in her domain.
The team also visited the Ovie of Uvwie Kingdom, HRM Emmanuel Sideso (JP), Abe 1, to intimate him of their objectives to his domain and at the same time to solicit for the support of the royal father.
The Uvwie Monarch, in his remarks thanked the Chairman for the visit to his palace, and urged the board to carry the traditional institution along when certain Government policies and programmes were been initiated and executed.
While promising to assist and take ownership of public schools in his kingdom, the Uvwie traditional ruler however called on the government to do the needful in order for the job of taking over ownership of schools be smooth.
The executive chairman was accompanied by the board members from the three senatorial districts of the State, the Permanent Secretary of the Board, Sir Byron Unini and other directors of the Board.
