Wednesday, January 29, 2025

Earlier on Tuesday, Senator (Associate Prof) Stephen Odey, Cross River State Commissioner for Education, flagged off the annual School Census Programme for 2023/2024 and 2024/2025 at the Ministry’s headquarters in Calabar. The event was well attended by prominent education stakeholders, including the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Barrister Francis Oyije, Director of Administration, Ministry of Education, Mrs Gloria Lukpata, the Management of the Ministry; Coordinating Supervisory Directors (CSDs), representatives of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Association of Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPPS), National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), Principals and Head Teachers of selected public and private schools in the State. The Permanent Secretary warmly welcomed all education stakeholders on behalf of the Ministry’s management. Mr Adeyemi Adebayo, Chief Operating Officer of Teckplus Digital Solutions (Future X), who is partnering with the Ministry of Education to ensure the successful and seamless collection of accurate school census data, applauded the Commissioner for the great strides recorded so far in the State education sector, stressed the importance of accurate data collection as development partners works only with available data, he stated while congratulating him on the prestigious National Leadership Award of Best Commissioner in Nigeria.

The Commissioner, expressed appreciation to stakeholders for their commitment to enhancing the State’s education sector, as he charged Coordinating Supervisory Directors, Education Secretaries, and school heads with mobilizing public and private primary, secondary, and technical schools for the census. He emphasized the importance of proactive reporting and closure of illegal schools by Coordinating Supervisory Directors and Education Secretaries, he also reiterated that teacher transfers remain suspended. Going forward, outstanding Coordinating Supervisory Directors, Education Secretaries, Principals, and Head Teachers will receive awards at the end of the year, Senator Odey stated.

During the flag-off ceremony, representing the Governor and Government of Cross River State, the Commissioner stressed on the importance of accurate school data for the education sector’s growth. He urged stakeholders to cooperate with Ministry officials to obtain precise data on every school child in the State, as he also informed stakeholders of the establishment of the University of Education and Entrepreneurship (defunct College of Education) Akamkpa, and the approval of the take-off grant for the institution, as well as registration of 14, 804 Cross River State indigenous students for the 2025 WAEC examination. All stakeholders present gave assurances of cooperation for a successful school census.

By SaintAugustine Adula Odey