NSSEC to sanction private schools operating below standard

The Executive Secretary of the National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC), Dr Benjamin Abakpa, has disclosed that the commission will look into private schools admission policies and the procedures of their operations.

Dr Abakpa, who stated this on Wednesday when the Commissioner of Education, Kaduna State, Dr Shehu Usman Mohammad and his team paid him a courtesy visit in his office in Abuja, said the commission will sanction any school operating below standard.

He said the exercise will be carried out with support from the states.

He said the commission also has the task of prescribing the minimum standard for senior secondary education and the responsibility of intervening in key areas in the states, which will come after proper need assessments in order to have a real database for secondary education in the country.

While noting that the commission will not shoulder the responsibility of states, he said, “we are only going to support the states in critical areas given to us by their own state plan for education and also based on our needs assessment.

“Every state is supposed to have a similar body that will be called the senior secondary education board at the state level and that will be the board we will be interacting with most of the time.” 

He said each of the boards is also supposed to have its own account for the senior education fund. “It is that account that whatever we want to intervene in any state, the fund would be channelled into it before disbursement so we will not have a direct link with the state government by giving them money.

“And from the headquarters, our eyes will be on what you will do with the fund. If the fund is misappropriated, that is where you will stop until you do the right thing; in other words, if the state violates or abuses the privilege of our first tranche of intervention, it may be on hold until it does the needful,” he said. 

Responding, Dr Mohammad pledged that the state would establish the senior secondary education board to align with the plans of the federal government.

He also said they are currently working on students’ data in the state, using ICT to capture the biometric of all students, adding that will help put an end to situations where students are studying in one school but go to miracle centres to register for examinations.