Date: 2010-07-05

The Kwara State Governor, Dr Bukola Saraki has identified lack of effective supervision, performance rating, qualitative and aptitude test as well as evaluation of behavioural objective on the part of teachers as serious factors militating against effective teaching and learning in our school system.

The Governor stated this while giving insight into the education reforms embarked upon by his administration during an interactive session with journalists in his office at the Government House, Ilorin.

Dr Saraki, who emphasized on the need to improve the teachers and quality of teaching, observed that education sector was in a state of total collapse at the inception of his administration in 2003, hence the critical steps taken to safe the sector and the future of our young ones.

He disclosed that the reforms introduced in the sector by the State Government were borne out of the poor state of education sector on assumption of office, which necessitated the first education summit in the history of the state, where various solutions were proffered for the declining status of the sector in the state then.

According to him, researches conducted on the dwindling standard of education at the inception of his administration revealed that the quality of teachers on ground then needed to be improved upon through regular training and retraining programmes.

Dr Saraki also noted that the outcome of the Education Summit convened by the State Government in 2003, further, revealed that the problem of the sector was beyond construction/renovation of classrooms and provision of chairs and desks.

The central problem, he pointed out, was the quality of the teachers that would impart knowledge in the children/wards, which he said requires urgent necessary steps to arrest the decaying situation.

Governor Saraki gave an illustration of a typical example where a test meant for primary four pupils could not be satisfactorily answered by a teacher, given an indication that not only was something wrong with the quality of teachers but certain aspects of the policy needed reforms in the area of effective supervision and monitoring.

He lamented that many of the teachers currently in the school system were not trained teachers as those who attended Colleges of Education did so because they could not gained admission into the University.

To further compound the situation, Saraki said most of the NCE graduate teachers do not intend to become professional teachers on graduation but to rather use teaching as a stepping stone to get better offers.

The State, he noted, is today one of the leading State in education reforms, having successfully achieved sanity in the sector through the education sector reform which addressed some of its identified lapses.

To further motivate the teachers having improved their quality, the governor disclosed that schools were equipped with relevant textbooks in core subjects like English and Mathematics, apart from stamping out cultism in post-primary schools and tertiary institutions in the State through the passage of legislation by the State House of Assembly.

He however expressed joy and satisfaction on the achievements recorded in the sector, adding that it is a worth while legacy for our people and I believe the incoming administration would build upon this for the future of our coming generations.


Mas’ud Adebimpe
Chief Press Secretary to the Kwara State Governor
05/07/10