FCTA officials defy rain to shut sub-standard schools

Closure of sub-standard schools in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, eventually commenced on Tuesday, as officials of education secretariat of the FCT administration defied rain to carry out the exercise at Durumi district.

The closure came weeks after a sensitisation exercise carried out by the Quality Assurance Department of the secretariat.

Two of the schools shut at the district, had operated illegally for about eight years.

They were shut in 2014 over poor facilities and failure to register with the relevant government agency but the owners later re-opened them for studies.

Speaking during the exercise, the acting secretary in charge of education secretariat, Naomi Vikki, bemoaned the poor condition under which the schools operated.

She stated that the affected schools were not registered with the secretariat and did not   plan to do so.

“They only started operating because of vested interest,” she said.

She noted that the secretariat had put more machinery in place to monitor if the shut schools would re-open.

Also speaking, the director in charge of Quality Assurance Department, Didam Ayuba, said the sub-standard schools thrived because those who patronised them had the notion that anything private was good.

He lamented that such schools kept springing up despite government’s efforts that had resulted in improved facilities and personnel for teaching and learning at public schools.

, “Government is committed to giving quality education with better facility and I can telll you, from our experience, that pupils from public schools perfom better than those from the private yet everyday people keep doing what they are doing at their backyard.