THE Edo State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) on Tuesday engaged principals, head-teachers and other stakeholders in the education sector where it cautioned against mass promotion of school children who did not qualify to move to their next class.
The chairman of SUBEB, Mrs Ozavize Salami stated this during the engagement session in Benin City where she said the mass distribution of books to schools have started and that similar engagements were recently held in Edo north and central senatorial districts which she said it was to brief school leaders on the data on attendance, lesson completion rate and to intimate them on the implication on learning outcomes among students and school Key Performance Indicators (KPI).
According to her, “For primary schools, distribution of books started today. Every primary school will have their books. So we can say that in the next one week every school will have their books. One of the things we are going to do in the next term is by stopping mass promotions . Teachers must do everything to teach the students so that they will learn and pass their exams very well, to avoid mass promotion. The students that did not pass we can retrain them and make them learn more about the subjects,” she added
According to her, “There is a global drive now to eliminate foundational literacy and we have a lot of supports from our international partners such as the world bank or Bill and Melinda Gates foundation through the accelerator program,” she said adding that the Edo Basic Education Sector Transformation (EdoBEST) has grown enrolment of children into basic primary school to 374,000 in the last one year.
She said “There shouldn’t be any child that is not in school. Over the last one year, we have grown the enrolment of children in our EdoBEST program to 374,000 children. So, we do not have an out-of-school problem.
“But we know that even around the world, focus is not only being drawn to schooling. Are they learning in school? Are we equipping them with the skills that they need to have better life options?
“We have done the foundation of the EdoBEST program and we need to check whether the children are actually learning. In the last five years, attention has been paid to Key Performance Indicators, such as school leaders’ attendance, teacher attendance and pupil attendance but more focus will now be given to the quality of teaching and learning in our classrooms,” she added.
On his part, Nosa Erhahon, Education Secretary of Egor council commended the board for organizing the event, assuring that they will work assiduously to improve learning outcomes of children.