Lokoja, February 11, 2020
The Kogi State Commissioner for Education Science and Technology, Hon. Wemi Jones, has solicited the support of relevant stakeholders for rapid transformational development of the state’s education sector.
The Commissioner made the appeal when he received the Members of House Committee on Education, Kogi State House of Assembly, in his office on Tuesday in Lokoja.
The Commissioner thanked the governor for considering him worthy of the appointment and to head the education sector, while commending the Honourable members for approving his appointment.
The commissioner restated the commitment of His Excellency, Gov. Yahaya Bello, to transforming the education sector in the state, stressing that education remained the major pillar and bedrock of any sustainable development.
He stressed that the ministry would redouble its efforts in the area of supervision, monitoring and inspection of schools to get the best out of students, saying the current rating of the state in external examination was not acceptable.
”We will enforce the tool of discipline in our schools; we need to utilise the human resources on ground and we will capitalise on that to improve education in the state and get our ratings back.
”Plenty efforts have gone into the state’s education sector, and a lot have been done by my predecessor which I have also called to appreciate her; but there are still lots to be done in the sector”, he said.
He added that the ministry would intensify efforts to generate quality and credible data to enable the ministry solicit the support of donor agencies and the relevant stakeholders for the delivery of quality education to the people of the state.
”We have to realise that the government alone does not have the capacity to fund education sector, and that is why we are trying to bring several stakeholders on board,”the commissioner said.
Earlier, the Chairman, House Committee on Education, Hon. Olushola Kilani, who led the team, said that they were in the ministry on familiarisation tour with the new commissioner as part of their oversight function.
He noted that as a committee, they have the mandate to ensure quality delivery in education sector, while requesting for the report of the status update of the ministry to be forwarded to the committee through the clerk.
The chairman also called the attention of the commissioner on the need to improve security in the state’s higher institutions, while calling for proper checkmate of the proliferation of substandard private schools across the state.
The chairman promised the support of the House to the ministry to see what they could do to improve the status of education in the state in the area of intervention, laws, among others.
The chairman, who was accompanied by other members of the committee, assured that they would definitely support the ministry in the area of data, which could actually help in decision making.
Reported by Ademu Seidu H.
Information Officer, MOEST, Kogi State
