Teachers to blame for academic decline, SUBEB Chairman

 Chairman, Cross River State Universal Basic Education Board, Mr. Joe Ebam, on Thursday said that low capacity of teachers was responsible for falling standard of education in the state and federation at large.

 Ebam, speaking  in Calabar state at the presentation of 50,000 text books to 100 public primary schools by a non-governmental organisation, Educational Standard Revival Initiative, otherwise called Edustar.

 He said that with good and dedicated teachers, primary and secondary education would improve in both the state and the country at large.

 “We have teachers with very low capacity to deliver and if we do not have good teaching capacity, what do we teach the children?” he said.

 He described the initiative of Edustar as commendable, adding that the commission would do its best to support the NGO in its quest to assist the government achieve high education standard. According to him, lack of reading culture was retarding efforts at improving quality of education in the state.

 Also, the Executive Director of Edustar, Prof. Owan Enoh, said the NGO was formed to revive the dying reading culture among pupils.

 Enoh also said that the idea of establishing the NGO was a result of the realisation that some graduates of higher institutions in the state were not able to read and write.

 “As a Provost of College of Education, I discovered that I cannot produce the best student in the college with pupils with poor educational background.

 So, I decided that it is time to return to the basics and I know that government alone cannot do this,” he said.

 He also said that the gesture was part of the contribution of the NGO as concerned citizens to assist the state government in its efforts to revamp education. Enoh said that Edustar was aware of the lot government was doing in the area of education and was ready to collaborate with the state’s Ministry of Education. He advised teachers to be more dedicated to duty and to make proper use of the books in teaching their pupils.

 Edustar, he added, was ready to continue to partner with other educational institutions to ensure the revival of education in the state.