Chinedu Eze
28 September 2005
Abakaliki — Ebonyi State Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB) yesterday said it would sack all teachers who were found with fake or questionable certificates as it embarks on certificate verification exercise.
Briefing newsmen at the launching of the state's Universal Basic Education (UBE) in Abakaliki, the Board's Chairman, Chief Austin Edeze, noted the alarm rate of teachers who were alleged to have been teaching with fake certificates, and threatened that anyone found guilty would be summarily dismissed, including those who laundered their certificates by using a fake grade 11 teaching certificate to obtain a genuine NCE (National Certificate on Education) result.
Edeze said the board would commission the special school located in Abakaliki prison, where inmates are made to learn and acquire skills to prepare them for life's challenges when they leave the prison.
He said the acquisition of basic education to the inmates would lead to total reformation, rehabilitation and re-integration of the prisoners when they come back to the society, adding that those who benefited from the prison school would be rehabilitated when they finish their term in prison.
UBE chairman commended the state government for constructing 300 four-classroom blocks in addition to the renovation of many school structures and the recruitment of teachers.
He added that under the board's community education mobilisation programme, no fewer than 80 communities in the state benefited from relief aids like building materials for the erection of new classrooms, while over 250 primary schools have received various forms of assistance, such as financial and material support for the renovation and upgrade of school structures.
Edeze observed that the board and government alone cannot fund education, and this has prompted the board to woo international donor agencies, notably UNICEF, International Labour Organisation (ILO), British Council and Department for International Development (DFID).
He said British council has sent free consultants to the board to partner with it on ways of accelerating the development of education in the state and is now supporting the establishment of resource centres in the state.
Also, ILO has completed plans to embark on entrepreneurial education with the board, so that learners who might not want to continue their education after UBE programme would be taught skills to establish their own businesses.
Edeze said UBEB now pays some teachers who teach in areas with difficult terrain hazard allowance as an incentive to make them not to seek transfer, and has also provided motorcycles to over 90 members of staff.
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