BY UBON EKANEM, CALABAR – In a bold move aimed at curtailing out-of-school children syndrome, the Cross River Government has announced the commencement of free tuition from the primary up to Junior Secondary School (JSS) level in the state.
The new educational policy is meant to ensure that indigent children in the State are given the opportunity to access quality education at minimum cost to their parents due to the stark realities of economic hardship in the country.
Speaking at a Ministerial media briefing in Calabar, the State Commissioner for Quality Education, Dr Godwin Amanke explained that the policy does not in any way foreclose minimal overhead charges which should not exceed N1,200 per pupil to make up for the administrative expenditures.
He said such charges would cover the printing of examination question papers; and procurement of chalk for imparting knowledge as well as other incidentals necessary for proper knowledge acquisition by the affected children
Dr Amanke disclosed that strict enforcement of the policy would be handled by a Monitoring Unit in the Ministry already established to ensure compliance and also bring erring school authorities to book
Similarly, the Commissioner said the British-Canadian Institute in the Obudu Local Government Area has been upgraded for the teaching of law courses and medical science, adding that accreditation from the National University Commission (NUC) is being awaited for the Institute, which is about 80 percent completed.
He also stated that to complement the educational development programmes in the northern Cross River, the State government has located two institutions, a Teachers’ Training Institute, and a Federal Polytechnic in both the Central and Southern senatorial districts
According to him, facilities at both tertiary educational institutions are world-class with standard accommodation facilities provided within the school premises for educational staff and other related activities.
Also presenting his Ministry’s scorecard at the Forum, the Commissioner for Rural Development, Mr Effiom Okokon said the State government had initiated a programme to ensure at least three model semi-urban centers were established in each of the senatorial districts.
However, he said due to paucity of funds, the government took the option of applying the vision in the northern part of Ipong ward in the Obudu local government area as a pilot case with the provision of asphalted road network; portable drinking water through the drilling of standard solar-powered boreholes; and street lighting projects,
Mr Effiom lamented that though the state government was eager to overstretch its lean resources, the experience has been too challenging to cope with as a single standard borehole of the magnitude earmarked for the project gulped about 11 million Naira due to the topography and geographical nature of the area.
The Commissioner said given the challenging experience, the Ministry resorted to providing only two standard solar-powered boreholes per ward across the entire Northern part of the state at a total cost of about 11 billion Naira.
He berated the people of the Southern senatorial district for joining forces with the perpetrators of the #End-SARS carnage to destroy public and private property instead of borrowing the good example displayed by their central and northern brothers who resisted the destruction of properties in their areas in the guise of #End-SARS protest.
Mr Effiom said a passionate appeal has been made to the State government to consider reactivating most of the public property destroyed during the unfortunate incident, including the Cross River State Newspaper Corporation, publishers of the Nigerian Chronicle group of newspapers.
