The Delta State Government, has set up School Based Management Committee, SBMC, to safeguard facilities in government owned basic schools across the state.
The SBMC, comprises eminent people from communities where the primary (basic) schools are situated, the vigilantes, women leaders and president-generals of the communities.
This was disclosed Thursday July 11, when the Chairman of State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) in Delta State, Hon. Omiregha Samuel Mariere, led other members of the board and the Executive Secretary of Local Education Authority (LEA) in Warri South, on a working visit to the Head of Personnel Management (HPM) of Warri South Local Government Council, Mr. Augustine Akaeze.
Hon. Mariere, told the HPM of Warri South, “You’d agree with me that primary education in Nigeria is tripartite, involving the local, state and federal governments. We at the State Universal Basic Education Board manage it from the three tiers of government also. Basically, the staff of the LEA, including the teachers for the primary schools, are staff of SUBEB in that sense, but they are also staff of the local government, because part of the responsibility, according to the national education policy, is that bulk of the salaries to these teachers come from the local government, so of course, you should be interested in what happens in the schools.
“Education is so key in the development of any person, and the foundation of education is the primary. If the foundation is faulty, there is nothing you build on it that can stand. You’d agree with me that we have all failed as far as primary education is concerned.
“His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Delta State (Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori) is very concerned and he wants us to return these primary scholars back go the old glory. The problems are numerous. They are not problems that only one person can solve, and because the council is an integral part of this problem solving, you need to be involved.
“Number one, the council is owing the LEA so much. Statutorily, the council is supposed to be remitting 10% of its allocation to the LEAs, but today, they are releasing only 1%. One of the reasons for failure is this lack of funding. It may interest you to know that some of the head teachers go home with just N2,000 monthly as their interests or their over-head.
“The government today, state and federal governments, will do a lot of renovations, buildings, infrastructural developments, and within 6months, these will be vandalized. In some places, even roofs will be pulled off. Do we have resources to employ security? How much security can we employ to work day and night in these facilities over the 37 primary schools in the local government? Even at that, the council is still meant to assist, the communities are meant to assist. That is the reason we must engage the communities.
We are going round and seeing the Kings. We have seen several already, and by 12 today, we will be seeing the Olu of Warri. It is because of the political nature of Warri that we cannot bring everyone together at the same time.
“We have also set up what we call the SBMC, the School Based Management Committee, where every primary school in Delta State now have a management committee, eminent people from the communities, the vigilantes, women leaders, president generals of the communities are there, to be able to monitor and keep these properties safe for us.
“So, we are handing over these schools to them. We are getting them involved. These are some of the things we are here for, after which, we will meet primary school head teachers and tell them what we are doing and any other who is not ready to work with us we will remove so that others who are ready to work will be placed.”
The Head of Personnel Management of Warri South Local Government Council, Mr. Augustine Akaeze, in his response, noted: “I don’t think we have been doing poorly in terms of partnering with other relevant stakeholders, for the development of primary schools.
“We have been concerned to the extent that we have a running project of transportation of students to the riverine areas on boat. The Council is taking the responsibility of that transportation. Whatever partnership we are expected to give, we are ready.”
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