International Human Rights Commission(IHRC) Civil Society Organizations, and other stakeholders have commended Enugu state Governor, Dr. Peter Mbah , for establishing Enugu Smart School, calling on school boards to ensure routine inspection of schools to ensure quality.
Pix- Commissioner fir educatiion,Prof Mbah, ENSUBEB chairman,Dr .Ajah
They made the call ,Friday, while speaking with newsmen after they had visited the newly constructed Enugu Smart school, Owo, Nkanu East local government area and had addressed the pioneer Smart teachers ,who came for “all hands on deck training” to round -off their five Day training workshop which kick started the Smart school.
Ahure
The Global Director-General , International Human Rights Commission, Special United Nations Consultative Status, Dr. Innocent Ahure, said he was very happy with what he saw on ground. He commended Governor Mbah for establishing the Smart school .
Ahure said the classrooms are standard. His words: “Given the United Nations / Sustainable Development ‘Goals (UN/SDGs) standard, the coefficients here are linked with the United Nations’ standard. “
He advised teachers to be dedicated to their duties., calling for routine inspection of schools to ensure quality.
On her part, Cordinator , Civil Society Organisations’ patnership with the ministry of Education, Enugu, Virginia Obianyo, of the Civil Resource Development’ and Documentation Centre ( CI R D OOC), said what they saw on ground was “wonderful”. She said they have been working together with the ministry of education, ensuring standards were maintained.
Obianyo
Obianyo disclosed that they signed a Memorandum of Understanding ( MoU) with the ministry of education and monitor the activities of schools in the state to ensure accountability..
On the training of the pioneer teachers, she commended the state Governor,Dr Peter Mbah and the Commissioner for Education, Prof Ndubueze Mbah for transforming education in Enugu state.
She assured routine monitoring of the school, saying, “we have been monitoring the education sector, the service delivery . this one, we are going to monitor it and see that it works. We signed MoU with the ministry of education. We monitor activities, write reports and they are taken. We will demand accountability, I know there is a political will to make the system work,” Obianyo said.
Prof Mbah
Speaking, the Commissioner for Education, Prof. Ndubueze Mbah, said there are Twenty Two(22) digitalily equipped classrooms, toilet facilities, solar and other facilities in the school .
On his assessment of the pioneer teachers, Prof Mbah said :”the 100 teachers had gone through intensive training workshop, ranging from ethics to professionalism, development, problem solving in the classroom among others . What had inspired me the most are the teachers themselves .
Smart teachers
“‚Every education system is not just about structure. It’s just about the program, the Curriculum and how well designed, most importantly is the quality of teachers, . The hundred (100) teachers we have here are top hundred in Enugu state.
Almost Seventeen Thousand (17,000) applicantions were received and they just demonstrated they were good .They have given us confidence that they are going to do well”, Mbah said.
On Curriculum, he said they were going to review the national Curriculum and align it to the needs of Enugu state.
“In Curriculum development, we have our co-patners and co- creators as we revise the national Curriculum to adapt it to the needs of Enugu State. So, this is a very well designed national program and teachers , resource persons are from various parts of Nigeria, some from the United States. Some of them had worked with people who designed teaching aids, Curriculum, science kits and how to use them We created access to teaching tools for them. This has been a very successful workshop and it was intensive,” Mbah said.
On inspection of schools, the Commissioner said: “One of the things we had ensured is as these teachers were trained, the entire directorates of the ministry of education had been participating The entire boards of .ENSUBEB, PPSMB and STVSB had been participating , because you cannot monitor what you don’t know. You cannot evaluate a system you do not understand. We are all were here, G O C Ajah (ENSUBEB)was here, Fr Hillary Mgbodile (PPSMB) was here, Nworga ( STVSB) was here , we participated every single day.
The Commissioner said they had Eleven, Civil Society Organizations(CSOs)partnering with the Ministry of Education.
Ekweremadu
On his part, the Commissioner for Sports and Youth Development’, Lyold Ekweremadu, commended Governor Mbah for building the Smart school. He expressed happinesss with what he saw and said,:”it gives us great joy to see the Smart , deligent, digital school. What we have here is beautiful. the vision of the state Governor is achievable”, he said
Ekweremadu said he came to see the school and the space available to know where various sporting facilities will be built. “Mine now is to key into the Smart school, ” he said.
The Commissioner mentioned football pitch, handball court, basketball court, indoor games as some of the sporting facilities that will be built in the school
He promised that the facilities will be equivalent to those of other private schools in other parts of the world.
He commended Governor Mbah for considering the people living with disabilities, by providing facilities for them.
Dr. Ajah
On his part, the Chairman , Enugu State Universal Basic Education Board(ENSUBEB) Dr G O.C. Ajah, expressed joy with what he saw on ground. He said,” we are happy with what we saw on ground.
“This is the first 260 Smart Schools to be delivered. Before the end of January, we would have delivered the Nine (9) Smart schools . The school has already taken off with the training of the Smart teachers, Dr.Ajah said .
On the assessment of the teachers , Dr. Ajah said, “the teachers have shown zeal to be part of this school. We have provided quarters for them .They are happy.”
Smart teacher Ogechukwu
Some teachers also spoke with newsmen. Peace Ogechukwu Odo , Ogbu Chiamaka and Paul Eneh, thanked Governor Mbah for establishing the Smart school. They also thanked the Governor for the training they received.
Smart teacher Chiamaka
The Smart teachers said they learnt a lot, they were given a re-orientation, and taught experiential way of teaching.
Smart teacher Paul
They said respectively:”Indeed , our tomorrow is here.”
The Smart school covers Nursery, Primary and Secondary classes.
Author: Maureen Ikpeama