BENIN—GOVERNOR Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, weekend, ordered the arrest of some school teachers allegedly involved in manipulation in the First School Leaving Certificate Examination, vowing to ensure that basic education in the state was strengthened.
He stated this when he paid an unscheduled visit to some the examination centres in Benin City. Some of the centres visited include Ebenezer Primary Schools, Ivbyenova Primary School, St Saviour, George Idah Primary School and Ologbosere Primary School, Ologbosere Primary School in Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area of the state. Obaseki, who was accompanied on the visit by the Head of Service of the state, Mrs Gladys Idahon, the Chief of Staff, Taiwo Akerele, Special Adviser on Basic Education, Joan Oviawe and others, said: “We decided that we will have the exams for Primary 6 pupils today. As a policy, we decided that this examination will be organised in a better and more professional manner.”
On the arrested teachers, the governor said, “They will face the law. We want to assure parents that this government is determined to improve quality basic education. We are determined to make sure that our children at the basic level are given the best education.” “They will face the law. We want to assure parents that this government is determined to improve quality basic education. We are determined to make sure that we provide our children the education at the basic level that they need to see them through life. that they need to see them through life.
You have private schools and you have public schools being tested. You saw the situation we had where teachers in primary schools tried to influence the exams so they can claim that children from their schools do better than the ones in public schools in this a standard exam. “It also gave us an insight into the level of preparations our children are given to write exams, the level of confidence they have and I quite satisfied with what we have seen today.
I am also bothered about the corruption in our exam process. You could see that parents were kept out. In one of the schools, there was almost a riot because the parents wanted to go a school, particularly those from the private school, who may have paid for their children to do well, they wanted access to the schools to be able to influence the exams but they were stopped. “But I am happy that our officers have done well to ensure that the standard we required and the standard we want to set are met.”
On the arrested teachers, the governor said, “They will face the law. We want to assure parents that this government is determined to improve quality basic education. We are determined to make sure that we provide our children the education at the basic level that they need to see them through life. “It is going to be rigorous and tough. We believe that if we get the basic education right, everything else will follow.
The challenge we have today in our country is that for some unfortunate incidents in the past, we just could not hold any body responsible for basic education because of the way it is structured. Under UBE, it is distributed between local government, state and Federal Government and that caused a bit of dislocation. As a state, we have decided to take the bull by the horns, ensure that we take charge, we have a proper basic school administration system so that we can track the progress of every child from primary 1 through to JSS 3,” he stated.
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