The Ministry of Education has embarked on nationwide schools monitoring and evaluation to stamp out schools being used as ‘miracle’ centres.
The Deputy Director at the Federal Education Quality Assurance Service (FEQAS) of the ministry and Team Lead, Rukayat Ibrahim, during an on-the-spot assessment of Redeemer Teap International School (RTIS) in Abuja on Tuesday, said the visit was aimed at putting schools on the right track and ensuring they have all the necessary facilities to provide quality education.
Ibrahim said the activity is a nationwide assessment and taking place simultaneously in all the states and FCT.
“In the past, we used to have two to three days to monitor but we call this on-the-spot assessment. We go to school and within three hours we are done. This is to enable us to cover more schools and bring out reports to the management to quickly read and know what is happening in the schools,” she said.
Also, Mr Yinka Amodu, also from the FEQAS department, stressed the need to strengthen evaluation to put schools on their toes.
Amodu maintained that the ministry does not limit the exercise to private schools but all public schools, creche, and early childhood education.
“We are doing this today to help the schools, the learners, the parents and also help the country.
In 2007, we were able to discover some ‘kangaroo schools’ that were not registered. They don’t have qualified or professional teachers. Even if you see some of the buildings they use, they are dilapidated. So it was because of this kind of evaluation that we were able to identify the schools.”
The school’s principal, Oladimeji Yusuf, pledged to work on areas of improvement which the team had identified while also providing adequate facilities for the learners and teachers.
The yardstick for assessment includes skills development, conducive learning environments, classroom space, laboratory equipment, ICT facility, clinics and perimeter fencing among others.