By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
The Secretary for Education, Sani Dahir El-katuzu, has urged Public and Private Schools in the FCT to continue to comply with its accreditation process.
El-katuzu gave this advice at the presentation of the 15th Batch Accreditation Certificates to Public and Private Schools in the territory.
He advised school proprietor should not the consider the charges as double taxation or unnecessary burden, adding that it is to help partners to participate effectively in their respective
responsibilities.
“Education is a partnership activities which means, education for all ,also the responsibilities of all, so the stipends is to ensure both partners participate effectively in their respective responsibilities in carrying out their various objectives.”
“It is worthy of note that the efforts made by private proprietors of schools in complementing government desire in providing education to the teeming populace of Federal Capital Territory is not in vain.”
Acting Director, Department of Quality Assurance, Mrs Magdalene Uzoanya said, “Accreditation as a Quality Assurance Instrument is a process that assesses the mission, goals, resource availability, performance and effectiveness of schools vis-à-vis the FCT Guidelines on the Establishment and Operation of Educational
Institutions and National Minimum Standards.”
Uzoanya explained that Quality Assurance involves the use of experienced Educationists to ensure professionalism, transparency and credibility of the exercise. The use of this calibre of evaluators is to facilitate strict adherence to the required minimum standards.
According to her, “In the last exercise 72 schools were visited during the exercise, 62 schools met up with 67% and above in all the four thematic areas to get Full Accreditation.”
She further disclosed that Six schools failed to score 67% in one of the four thematic areas and got Provisional Accreditation. Four schools failed to score 67% in two or more of the four thematic areas and were Denied accreditation.
She explained that Schools which avail themselves of the opportunity of accreditation not only impact positively on their students’ performance but also derive sustained continuous improvement and maintenance of standards to meet the strict
standards.
“This is in line with the new quality assurance model of the Education Secretariat which seeks to ensure that global best practices are entrenched to bring about improvement in teaching and learning and also deliver high quality education to every Nigerian child.”
“Worthy of note is Blended or Hybrid Learning which is a strategy to bridge the gap created by the CoVID-19 Pandemic which affected Education and indeed other sectors of the economy.”
She also disclosed that the Department of Quality Assurance is vested with the responsibility of regulating the activities of all private schools in the FCT and requires all private schools in operation to be faithful in meeting their obligations of promptly paying the stipulated Annual dues each school is expected to pay
On behalf of the accredited schools, Notre Dame Girls Academy, expressed their heartwarming appreciation for the opportunity to be accredited by the FCT Education Administration and pledged their commitment to impact positively on the education of children in the territory.
