By Frank Ulom
The National Parent Teacher Association of Nigeria, NAPTAN has called on Governor Ben Ayade to grant the association the go-ahead to establish Computer Labs in all the 267 public secondary schools in Cross River State.
This was disclosed by Prof. Boniface Odey, State Chairman of NAPTAN on Tuesday, July 13, 2021, during a courtesy visit by Mr Castro Ezama, Special Adviser to Governor on Education in his office in Calabar.
Prof Odey said that if Governor Ayade gives the approval, which documents have already been sent to the Governor’s office, NAPTAN will build at least a 50-set Computer Lab in each of the 267 secondary schools across the 18 Local Government Areas of the state.
“We have all agreed that in each school in the 18 local government areas, parents will build one computer lab with at least 50 computers with generator, solar panel (to provide electricity), security and teachers. We are not using government teachers, we are going to use our own teachers that are computer literates – and in my record, we have 267 public secondary schools in Cross River State.
“We are not proposing for government to buy, we proposed that the government should approve it for us to establish one computer laboratory in each school. We have seen the challenges government is facing, from JSS 2 – SS 3, no computer in any school. With the Government carrying so much burden on its shoulders, it is not easy to provide it, so we now made a proposal to His Excellency to allow us to do it because it’s not our schools.
“Everybody is government, that is why we took up the project of fencing-round all schools in Cross River State – if you go to some schools now, the perimeter fencing is done by the PTA. Some schools you have been visiting, you have seen the many things we have done in the schools – and we are building additional classroom blocks in some schools too.
“The only problem we are having now is these computer training centres in our schools. We don’t have computers in any school and at the end of the day, SS 3 students will be coming out to write JAMB with computers – any moment from now, WAEC and NECO will start; and other examination bodies will start too but how do they write these exams? You can see what happened in this year’s JAMB. The low marks are because these children don’t have knowledge of how to operate a computer. How can they pass when they have not seen something they are being presented with in the examination hall before. This is why we came up with one proposal which we believe any moment from now the governor will approve. I believe His Excellency who knows the value of what we are saying will approve it so that we can go ahead with the project”, Odey said.
Earlier speaking, SA Ezama said the Cross River State Government is committed to delivering quality education to its citizens. He assured the NAPTAN Chairman that he will take the message to the Governor and promised that the approval for the Association to build Computer Labs across schools in the state will be granted in a short time.
“I want to thank you for the intervention in complementing the role of government, especially in the area of infrastructure in our respective schools – you have shown great leadership. In Cross River State, it is quality education and nothing less than that. His Excellency the digital Governor of Cross River State, Prof. Ben Ayade is committed to quality education and will leave no stone unturned until that is achieved. Incidentally, this is the only state in the country where we have a Professor as a governor, a Professor as a deputy governor”, Ezama stated.
He said that “recently, the world was agog with the beautiful edifice, the Teachers’ Continuous Training College located in Biase Local Government Area. That College when commissioned will take care of training and retraining our teachers to meet with the 21st century teaching where a lot of things will be x-rayed and our teachers will be better equipped to deliver”.
Ezama said his office will work with NAPTAN to organise a capacity workshop across the three senatorial districts of the state to address several issues including moral decadence among school children.
“We will work with you to ensure that we organise a capacity workshop with the theme, ‘The Role of Parents in Education of their Children.’ We will do this across the three senatorial districts, where parents will all be invited and we will drum it and come up with a bigger resolution to see how we can help our children”.
In his other response, the NAPTAN State Chairman, Prof. Odey commended Governor Ayade for addressing security issues, carrying out various projects and turning the state into an industrial hub. He said: “On our scoreboard, we have been interacting with other states. Cross River is not lagging behind. On our scoreboard, we can give Cross River State 75-80 per cent in the education sector. That’s a good mark for His Excellency and we pray that he will continue with that and improve on that till when he lives office and we all know what he has to leave behind as a Professor”, he said.
Odey further appealed that: “We need a CCTV camera – at least two in each school so that as you are coming in, you are seen immediately. We pray that the government would help us in this regard”.
