School resumption: FCTA records impressive turnout of students, teachers

By Stanley Onyekwere

The FCT Administration has said it recorded an impressive turnout of  both students and teachers in public and private schools on the first day of school resumption  for second term of the 2023/2024 academic session, following the conclusion of 2023 yuletide holidays.

This was disclosed yesterday when the FCT Secretary for Education, Dr. Danlami Hayyo led the Education Secretariat management team for the 2024 second term academic session  visitation and inspection to some schools in the nation’s capital city.

It was observed that the team’s first point of call was the Government Science and Technical College (GSTC), Area 3, followed by Government Secondary School,Tundun-Wada and a private school – Glisten Group of Schools, Jahi respectively.

Hayyo, while fielding questions from newsmen, said the team observed that almost all the students and teachers are back and ready for learning.

He said: “From all indications, the teachers resumed for work and are ready to work and the students are also ready for learning. It means teaching and learning is taking place, that’s the essence of our coming here to make sure school resumes properly. Lessons plans, lesson notes are all ready and from all indications teachers are anxious to work.

“Turnout for the first day of resumption is encouraging. I expected to see a low attendance rate considering the Christmas and New Year break, since a lot of students traveled with their families out of Abuja. But, fortunately for us, almost all the students are back and are ready for learning.”

He added that part of the aims of the inspection is to identify some challenges of the schools, in order to effectively address them.

“We have seen, and taken note of all information on problems facing schools, we are going to take back to the honorable Minister, as education is one of the key priority areas of this administration.

“The minister promised that the sector will, given special consideration. That’s why in the 2023 budget, the sum of 13.1 billion Naira was approved to be spent on renovations, construction, and provision of chairs and furnitures for schools in FCT, which is very encouraging”, he stated.

Furthermore, the Secretary said: “I like to call the attention of the teachers to continue with their dedication to duty, because we’re not going to leave any stone unturned. When we discover a school whereby teachers are ready but students are not present or the turn out of the students is low, definitely we are going to change the administration of the school.

“We are going to bring someone capable hands that can lead, because like I said earlier,  one of the priorities of the minister is education. We can’t wait until the minister see something bad before we take action, definitely we are going to cub the problem.”

Also speaking, Mr. Akor Joseph, principal of Government Secondary School, Tundun-Wada said, “We are just back from the Christmas holidays, and most of these students traveled with their parents, that’s why you see this number of students.”