A survey of staff and facilities in public primary and secondary schools is to be conducted by the Nasarawa state  government aimed at repositioning the sector.

The State Commissioner of Education, Science and Technology, Hajia Fatu Sabo, disclosed this during a fact-finding dialogue with education stakeholders on Thursday in Lafia.

According to the education commissioner, Governor Abdullahi Sule has already given approval for the survey in order to have a holistic statistics of both manpower and facilities for the purpose of planning for the sector.

Sabo explained that the survey would concentrate on taken inventory of teachers, securities, nannies, cooks and other staff in schools.

She pointed out that the ministry would also take inventory of facilities to know where to do more by providing facilities to create a conducive environments for learning.

The Commissioner noted that from Monday 13, 2020, the ministry would embark on massive capacity building of staff to keep everybody abreast with his or her responsibility for the overall development of the sector.

“The capacities of directors, principals, teachers and other staff would be built in line with their responsibilities to reposition the sector and make it one of the best in the country,” the Commissioner added.

She also explained that as part of the initiative to strengthen the sector, the ministry would embark on massive enrollment drive campaign to ensure that ‘,no child is left behind and left out’.

“We would ensure that all out of school children including the girl-child, orphans and other vulnerable who are out of school are made to return back,” the Commissioner added.

The Commissioner therefore assured the stakeholders that they would always be carried along in the implementation of any policy introduced by the government.

Contributing, the Nasarawa State Chairman, National Parents Teachers Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN), Umaru Ebeyen, said that the free education policy introduced by the previous government was responsible for the failing standard of education in the state.

He said that the declaration of free education since 2013 had hampered the support parents and other stakeholders were rendering to complementing the government to up lift the standard of education in the state.

“We are the parents of the children, so if the government really wants to regain the lost glory of education in the state, they should abolish the policy and instead assist us in paying for external examinations for our children,” the Chairman added.

On his part, State Chairman of All Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS), Ogiri Christopher, appealed to the government to reintroduce funding of schools to enable heads of schools to carry out certain urgent responsibilities to ensure smooth running of schools.

He said that a situation where a head of school cannot attend to emergency cases concerning the health of teachers and students and provide learning materials cannot help the system. 

The ANCOPSS Chairman therefore appealed to the government to do something urgently to beef up security in schools given the increasing rate of insecurity in the country.

The meeting was attended by directors, supervisors, NAPTAN, representatives of private schools among others.