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As a direct fallout of the deliberate and concerted policies and
programmes of the Senator Ben Ayade- led administration to reposition
education, Cross River State’s rating in both the West African Examination
Council (WAEC) and National Examination Council (NECO) has taken a great
leap.
The State Commissioner for Education, Hon. Goddy Ettah who disclosed this
in Calabar said before the coming of the Ayade administration, the was
rated 22 by WAEC out of 36 states and Abuja and had moved to position 20;
while in NECO, the state has moved from 29 to the second position in the
country.
Hon. Ettah, also revealed that before now, WAEC had never held any of its
National Conference in Cross River State, as a result of the previous poor
rating of the state by the examination body, but that due to the giant
strides made by Ayade leadership in this direction, the 58th National
Conference of the Council is coming to Cross River.
The Cross River education Commissioner explained that the current
administration has frontally tackled the scourge of examination
malpractices in the state and has restored the confidence of both the West
African Examinations Council (WAEC) and the National Examination Council
(NECO).
He further disclosed that in order to ensure quality teaching staff
leading to quality education, teachers’ audit was carried out to
ascertained the qualifications of the teachers in the state employ, and
discovered that out of 3000 teachers about 800 of them had fake
certificates.
The Commissioner maintained that the Governor directed that those who
lacked the requisite qualification should process to further their
education, and that it is based on this premise that the state government
is building a Teachers’ Continuous Education Centre at Biase Local
Government Area of the state.
When contacted, three female teachers at the Government Secondary School,
Uwanse in Calabar South said that the current administration in the state
has done pretty well in the area of education.
Speaking, a junior secondary school (JSS) Mathematics teacher, Mrs. Grace
Asha commended the efforts of the Ayade-led administration in the vital
area of education, and posited that it is a wonderful thing that under
Ayade, the state has been able to improve on both WAEC and NECO rating.
Asha reasoned that in the aspect of examinations malpractices in the
state, it is just a matter of time the issue will fizzle out with the
level of war being waged by the Ayade government against it and hoped that
the battle will be sustained by the government and other stakeholders in
the educational sector in the state.
Also speaking, a senior secondary school mathematics teacher, Mrs. Glory
Umotong emphatically stated that Ayade has performed extremely well in the
area of education especially when it comes to fighting examinations
malpractices and checking to ensure that teaching staff possess qualified
certificates.
On her part, another senior secondary mathematics teacher, Mrs. Umoh
Ebong, equally applauded the state government for achieving this feat.