Bayelsa to tackle 10 themes of education summit

Bayelsa State Government says it will tackle all 10 themes of the maiden Bayelsa State Education Summit which was held from February 7 to 10, according to a communique presented on Monday.

The 10 themes are access to education, school administration, financing and funding education, infrastructural situation, requirements and needs and quality assurance and quality control.

Others are curriculum, establishment and management of primary and secondary schools, establishment and management of higher institutions, standards and stipulations in education delivery and issues on teacher emoluments, incentives and motivation.

Presenting the communique, the state Commissioner for Education, Gentle Emelah, said a committee of professionals, technocrats and seasoned stakeholders will be set up “to carefully examine all the presentations, opinions and recommendations to come up with the official summit report as soon as possible.”

Emelah stated that the summit with the theme, Optimizing the delivery, performance and sustainability of outcomes in the education sector, saw 54 paper presentations, 25 opinion speakers, 10 breakout team leaders, 16 rappoteurs and over 700 registered participants.

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He said the summit stressed the need to mobilise support for government efforts to transform the education sector and called on stakeholders to activate all relevant resolutions and recommendations in order to achieve the summit’s wider objectives.

Secretary of the technical committee on the summit, Stella Ugolo, explained that the priority is to produce a report that would streamline government action in the education sector.

Ugolo said a government action plan would then be sent to the state House of Assembly to give it the necessary legislative backing to ensure that successive administrations implemented the short, medium and long term plans.

Idikio Jones, Technical Assistant to Emelah, said the end goal was to provide an integrated educational development policy and that all 10 themes were chosen to underscore the importance of each one.

Jones disclosed that going forward, there would be maximum engagement with development partners who have indicated interest to partner with the state government in specific areas.

The goal remained to develop short, medium and long term plans which are all part of the 15-year education plan for the state.