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.
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