…as Education Commissioner insists on standard
The Ministry of Education, Akwa Ibom State, has closed down several private schools operating without authorization. The exercise was aimed at standardizing educational delivery across the state, ensuring compliance with approved standards, and ridding the state’s educational system of substandard institutions that compromise the future of Akwa Ibom children.
The Honourable Commissioner for Education, Professor Ubong Essien Umoh led a team of top education officials – Permanent Secretary, Directors, Zonal Directors, Special Assistant on Education Monitoring, and Local Government Supervisors of Education – on the school closure exercise. Prof. Umoh expressed strong disapproval of the act of operating schools without the Ministry’s Authority To Operate (ATO) and the growing trend of converting makeshift structures, abandoned buildings, uncompleted houses, town halls and residential apartments into schools. He described as “deeply troubling” the practice where school proprietors exceeded the scope of their initial licenses for only nursery education and proceeded to running primary and secondary sections without approval. In some schools, he sadly noted multiple classes sharing a single blackboard in cramped spaces, some classrooms fabricated on septic tanks, room-sized classrooms partitioned into several quadrants with very poor sanitary conditions.
Prof. Umoh urged all proprietors of private nursery, primary and secondary schools operating without official approval are to immediately regularise their operations through proper documentation and registration with the Ministry of Education.
Accordingly, he strongly advised parents and guardians in both urban and rural communities not to enroll their children or wards in any private school that is not duly registered or licensed by the Ministry of Education, as the Ministry will, in this new school year, carry out a state-wide enforcement exercise to identify and seal off all unauthorized schools in the overall interest of quality education and the safety of Akwa Ibom children.
Schools closed down during the visit included Gracious Steps Royal Academy, Uyo LGA; Toppers Academy, Abak Road, Uyo LGA; Houston International Schools, Uyo LGA; Purple Hills Schools, Uyo LGA; Sparkling Height Schools, Uyo LGA; Beloved Child of God International School, Idoro, Uyo LGA; Glorious Future Academy, Ikot Ntuen Nsit, Uyo LGA; Spring Success International School, Nsit Ibom LGA; Marcus Garvey Drillers Foundation Schools, Nsit Ibom LGA; among others.
