From Uche Nnorom, Makurdi
Director-General Benue State Education Quality Assurance Agency, BEQA, Dr. Terna Francis has lamented the poor quality of education in the State.
He made the lamentation during an interview with newsmen in his office in Makurdi on Wednesday, decrying the big mess in the quality of learning in schools in the State.
Dr. Francis explained that it was for this reason that the Governor Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia established the agency with the mandate to document, control and check the quality of learning in basic and post basic education sector.
According to him, “we met a mess in the education sector. Several schools in the State have structural defect. People convert their two (2)bedroom flat into school. The teachers are just secondary school leavers. Someone who just finished SS3 teaching SS3 physics. A proprietor chokes students in a poultry farm. This is unacceptable and we are going to close the school down. Education is just for profiteering without quality.
“We have been doing our best to clean up the mess. The agency is a bureau directly answerable to the Governor. Quality Assurance that means the department of Quality assurance in the Ministry of Education is directly under the agency.
“It is a systemic thing. 32,000 is the fee for WAEC. But before now, the students were paying over 50,000 or more as WAEC fees.
“We have called for recertification and gathering of data about quality of teachers and paying of annual renewal fees. We sent out our evaluators to confirm the data schools give to us.
“I have visited over 300 schools in the State. We have warned schools proprietors and proprietress to put things in place or have their schools sealed. We are not compromising on standard and quality no matter who is involved. We are not backing down. We have the political backing.
“It will amaze you to know that 2016 was the last time the examination board conducted BECE without issuing certificates.
“You can imagine that a school in Makurdi is using British curriculum and operating a semester kind of education. The students are made to pay 550,000 as fees.”
