Chief Hyacinth Ikpor, Chairman of Ebonyi State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) said steps are being taken to improve pupils’ learning and that 117 houses are being built for teachers.
Education authorities contend with a wide range of pupils’ needs nowadays. What are the basic challenges facing basic education?
Basic education comprises primary and junior secondary schools including the early childhood education, and in Ebonyi State, we have 1,066 primary schools and 224 junior secondary schools which were all in need of learning facilities when this administration came on board. So, we obtained matching grants which we could not access for four years from the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), procured 40,000 pieces of classroom furniture and distributed to schools.
And before now, most pupils were sitting on bare floor; some under the tree to learn.The contract we are going to give subsequently is to provide additional furniture to schools. Government is doing this because when you have more than 1,000 primary schools, 40,000 seats will not be enough. We will acquire additional 20,000 seats.
Under the current COVID-19 lockdown, when will the additional furniture be delivered to schools?
We have awarded the contract already and by the end of this May, the contractor will start bringing the seats to the board.
What have you achieved in the area school buildings?
We have done very well because with the payment of the counterpart funds, we have embarked on renovation and construction of new structures. For now, we have recorded up to 400 renovated school structures and more than 300 new structures in the system. We have also procured computers and sent to some of our schools. We did that because it is the intention of the present administration that students must be computer literate but we want to begin with the teachers, and we have trained about 5,000 teachers already.
Basic education is free including provision of textbooks. And part of what we do is that, we submit lists of recommended books to the federal government, thereafter, the books are sent to us.
The board has built and equipped libraries and laboratories in some schools as well as supplied computers for e-learning.
What steps have your board taken to help pupils to succeed?
Just before schools closed, we discovered that many pupils, not only in Ebonyi, but nationwide, who attended schools cannot read and write. So, we identified that problem. And the problem is that at their early stage, these pupils were not taught how to read and write. For the present, we have procured books and assigned teachers to teach primary one pupils on how to read and write so that by the time they get to primary two, they can read and write. It is an experiment which we just started.
Sir, will you say you have done well in the provision of toilet facilities for teachers and learners?
Though there were challenges in school sanitation in some places, most of our schools have toilets; but what is striking now is that Governor David Umahi is, at the moment, building bungalows which will serve as teachers’/staff quarters in schools. We have awarded a contract for the building of 117 teachers’ quarters in the state.
We have a maximum of three months to finish the houses and the contract was awarded on 3rd March, 2020; by June this year, all the staff quarters will be ready and the teachers will move in. We will not stop there; we shall build more houses because our target is to have enough houses in all the 13 local government areas of the state. The 117 bungalows were part of the projects carried out with the N4 billion matching grants.
We are aware that there are some areas in the state facing internal conflicts, some on boundary dispute. How does the board ensure that pupils in those areas attend school?
I know that some areas in Ikwo Local Government Area had conflicts with their neighbors in Cross River State and at that time, the schools there were shut down but we do not have a situation where the conflict lasted for more than two Weeks.
Many pupils are reportedly dropping out of the public schools. Why?
That is the decision of the parents because some will choose private schools.
On the issue of drop outs, I am glad to say that Ebonyi State is among the focal states chosen by World Bank to tackle the menace of out-of-school children, and we had done sensitisation, advocacy and registered all the out-of-school children before the lockdown. At present, we have 67,000 out-of- school kids that have been taken back to school. These children are between the ages of 5 and 15 years but those who are above the age 15 were registered at the newly established vocational education centre where we have registered more than 500 persons, and our target is to have 300,000. At the centre, children learn vocational skills.
We are also aware that the present administration led by David Umahi reintroduced school agric programme. How far has the board gone in implementing this programme in basic schools?
Many schools in Ebonyi State today have farms funded by the board in the beginning. For instance, some schools got N300, 000, while others were given N150, 000. In all, we have spent N150 million on the programme. This money was disbursed to schools in the state to help them embark on farming.
Nomadic schools which are under the scope of influence of the board are said to be facing challenges. What strategy do you have in educating the nomadic kids?
Truly we have 59 nomadic education centres for the 15,381 kids comprising 7,511 boys and 7,780 girls. Effort is being made to improve the achievement of these pupils.
We have 331, 183 male and 148 are female teachers in these schools which are found in eight out of the 13 local government areas of the state.
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