• Begins assessment of secondary school students
The Edo State Government has commenced a statewide assessment of senior secondary school students, as well as those in technical schools to establish the gains recorded by the government in the education sector through the EdoBEST 2.0 programme.
The Commissioner for Education, Dr. Joan Osa-Oviawe, who disclosed this during an inspection tour to various schools in the state, said the exercise will help the ministry determine areas that need improvement to enhance learning outcomes, especially in English and Mathematics.
She said: “Across the state, we are doing a diagnostic testing of our students in SSS 1-3 to know the level they are academically.
“What we are doing today is a very important aspect towards enabling us in the education ecosystem to have accurate answers to the questions that governor Godwin Obaseki has been asking us, which include: are the teachers in school? If they are, are they teaching? If the teachers are teaching, are students learning? If they are learning, how do we determine this?
“To determine these, we are setting many targets for foundational literacy and numeracy. For those already in secondary school, if they are still behind, we intend to roll out a very effective and robust remedial programmes to help them catch up.”
The Commissioner added: “We chose to do a randomised test and depending on the outcome, we will now determine if we will roll it out to all students in our system. First quarter of next year, we are going to be rolling out our learning agenda, which is going to focus on quality education.”
Reassuring of government’s commitment to sustaining gains recorded in the sector through EdoBEST programme, Oviavwe linked the progress to the cohesion between the executive principals and officials of the state education ministry.
“We have been able to significantly address the issue of truancy and absenteeism among teachers and now, more of our teachers are in school. Some are still playing truancy and when those are caught, they will be dealt with accordingly. Edo State teachers are paid the highest salary in the country. So, no teacher in our system has any excuse not to come to work and teach.”
At Evbareke Secondary School, the commissioner restated government’s commitment to rehabilitate the school and others across the state, adding, “We have begun the process of renovating our secondary schools. A team is already going round to do a proper scope of work and costing.”
