The National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC) has come up with a minimum standards document for both existing and intending Senior Secondary Schools across the country.
This is in order to enhance quality education and ambience suitable for learning in all Senior Secondary Schools in Nigeria considering how standard and quality are gradually drifting.
The disclosure was made by the Executive Secretary of NSSEC, Dr. Iyela Ajayi, in Bauchi on Wednesday, during the opening ceremony of a 3-day critique workshop on zero draft of the minimum standards document for Senior Secondary Education in Nigeria.
According to him, the Commission which was established in 2021 was given a responsibility, among which was to ensure quality education in senior secondary schools in Nigeria.
According to him, “We don’t want to see a situation whereby states are running their senior secondary schools anyhow. We want uniformity in terms of minimum standards.”
He stressed that, “The minimum standard in terms of personnel, facilities and everything that will make for the improvement of the senior secondary school aspect and level of education in this country.”
Iyela Ajayi added that, “That is why we found it necessary to organize this critique of the minimum standard which we have a draft for already and we want Nigerians to own the approved minimum standard and not just the Commission.”
“That is why we are holding this meeting by inviting stakeholders from all over the 19 Northern states and the next meeting will take place in the Southern zone which will take place in Uyo. At the end of it, we will collate all the views, opinions and move to the next level,” he said.
Also speaking, Director, Quantity Assurance, NSSEC, Alhaji Abdulkareem Ibrahim, said that the aim of the document by the commission was to have a benchmark which could be used to regulate and reposition senior secondary schools in Nigeria.
According to him, “This document would be used to judge the type of school you want to establish. It will allow us to deduce if the school is up to the standard, a quack school or anyhow school.”
He added that, “We are also seeking that the approval be given to us to approve new secondary schools that will meet our standards or disapprove of new secondary schools that will be established without meeting our standards.”
“That is why we are here in Bauchi and that is why we invited the Directors of Planning, Statistics and Research from across the 19 Northern states to come and take a critical look at this document,” Ibrahim said.
He then affirmed that the workshop would give the stakeholders the avenue to add their own and also subtract what they didn’t like and to also carry them along.
In her address, the immediate past Chairperson of NSSEC, Dr. Nimota Akanbi, immediate past Chairman, explained that there are many senior secondary schools without infrastructure, laboratories, exam halls, toilets and so on.
She called on the stakeholders at the workshop to also contribute by letting out their own views on how the commission could make it possible for senior secondary schools to have the minimum standard.
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