By Obiageli Nwankwo
Anambra State Commissioner for Education, Prof. Ngozi Chuma-Udeh, has warned that the government will not tolerate harassment of private schools. She issued this warning during a stakeholders’ meeting on the National Education Quality Assurance Policy (NEQAP) and Implementation guidelines held at the Ministry of Education Boardroom in Awka.
The commissioner frowned at the incessant terrorization of private schools by challants who go about masquerading as government staff to extort money from these schools.
The Commissioner while lauding the importance of quality assurance policy in the education sectors, enjoined the office to understand that there is delineation of duties and also of the need to understand the working terrain of the state in which they discharge their duties as federal staff in order to avoid clash of power.
“We have quality assurance policy bodies instituted in the Ministry of Education and Education agencies,it behooves as a federal staff you must ensure your work aligns with the structure the state government has on ground guiding the education industry. You are expected to follow laid down procedure entrenched in the state education guideline.
“If you feel the structure put in place is not mallable ,this is also open for discussion but the state wants to ensure that whoever is coming into the schools is legitimate.
“If we become porous,how can we checkmate the excesses of rascals camouflaging as government staff,how do we differentiate between right or wrong ones,” she questioned.
In her remarks,the Director of the National Education Quality Assurance Policy, (NEQAP)Awka Office,Mrs Regina Ifezuruike while acknowledging the goodwill the office has enjoyed from public schools and her office readiness to follow due procedure,expressed the expectation that the NEQAP office will receive such collaboration from the private and mission schools.
She highlighted that NEQAP office was instituted to ensure that the Federal Ministry of Education and State Ministries of Education are working in uniformity as it regards education policies and Implementation.
She said that the meeting became imperative as most people at the helm of affairs especially the private and mission schools are ignorant of what the office is out to accomplish with most lagging behind on current and right standard in the nation educational space.
While debunking the notion circulating in the corridors of most private and mission schools that the office is out to fleece money from them,Mrs Ifezuruike restated that quality assurance is a process of monitoring and evaluating what goes on in schools according to stipulated guidelines geared towards bringing an improvement in teaching and learning.
In her remarks, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Dr Ifeoma Agbaizu listed funding,wrong conception of what quality assurance is all about and insecurity as some of the challenges negating effective quality assurance drive.
Dame Chinyere Mbakwe ,ASUBEB Board Member representing Private Schools called for the inclusion of private schools in the distribution of federal educational largesse to state school,as they are also part of the system
In a vote of thanks, Dame Eunice Mesigo a member of the Anambra State Education Commission appreciated Governor Soludo for the transformation he has brought to the state and the education sector
Highlight of the meeting was the distribution of copies of the National Education Quality Assurance Policy and Implementation Guidelines booklets to the Commissioner and educational stakeholders in Anambra State.
* Nwankwo is of the Ministry of Information, Anambra State *
