How A Commission Will Rescue Secondary Education in Benue…Uji
From Msughshima Andrew, Makurdi
The Executive Secretary of Teaching Service Board, TSB, Dr Wilfred Uji has urged the state government to expediate actions in changing the structure of the board to a commission to rescue state secondary education from total collapse.
Dr Uji who stated this in an interview with 247ureports said making the board a Teaching Service Commission, TSC, will give it a super structure that can assume responsibility for proper development of secondary schools education in Benue state.
He explained that the current structure of a TSB is obsolete, outdated and almost irrelevant in comtemporary Nigeria and does not accord it the powers for develop the schools under it.
Uji who lamented that several secondary schools in the state are in a state of dilapidation opined that if the state creates an agency that solely deals with the challenges in the secondary schools, the schools will be rescucitated and returned to the old days when they were real global centres of learning.
He expressed happiness that he got a circular,recently, permitting him to review the structure of the TSB to conform with a commission saying, “we are working on the structure and we are very sure that very soon we will pass it to state governnent for approval”.
He therefore advised Governor Samuel Ortom to present the document, when ready, to the State House of Assembly as an executive bill and have it passed quickly.
Uji noted that there are serious contradictions under the existing structure of the TSB, when it comes to secondary school education. “For instance, the same directorate you have at the TSB are the same at the Ministry of Education and sometimes, the directorates at the ministry of education will simply usurp the functions of the TSB.
“That is why it is important that this kind of bill should be passed quickly and speedily so that we can eliminate some of these contradictions”, he said.
Enumerating the benefits of a Teaching Sevice Commission, Uji said one is that all capital project that should go into the development of secondary school education will go directly to the Commission.
He explained that under the present structure, all capital projects are handled by the Ministry of Education because the TSB lacks the capacity both to award and execute capital projects, “But with TSC, secondary schools will now assume direct control over their destiny”.
“Under the TSC, we are also going to have international agencies as donors who will prefer to deal directly with Schools than the ministry of education because experince in the past shows that sometimes when you root International Development, both in terms of loans, through the ministries of education, it never gets down to the recipients.
“So International agencies over time have come to identify those challenges in Nigeria and would prefer to deal directly with the institutions to deliver to the grassroots.
