Absentee school principals, teachers to be punished – Kogi Education Commissioner, Jones

Kogi State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Hon. Wemi Jones on Monday stated that principals and teachers of schools in the State would be punished, if absented from duty posts without justification.

He stated this after paying an unscheduled visit to some secondary and tertiary institutions in Kogi East Senatorial District amid disturbing reports that teachers and principals are abandoning their duty posts for undisclosed reasons.

According to the Commissioner, Kogi State government has invested heavily in Education as well as it placed priority on education in the past administration of Yahaya Bello, hence, government would place emphasis on primary and secondary education now.

He disclosed that a new task force would be put in place to move round the State to monitor and supervise education activities and to evaluate the conduct of teachers across schools, insisting that they would be no longer sacred cows in the system.

The Commissioner in the early hours of today paid surprised visit to Our Lady, of School, Ayingba. CSS, Ajiyolo, Government Secondary School, Odu.

The Commissioner arrived CSS School Premises at about 7:40am this morning.

Speaking further on his visit, Hon. Jones maintained that in the administration of schools in the State, the Government has realized that with three State University’s, a Polytechnic, College of Education, College of Nursing, College of Health Technology and a Vocational training Institute, the need to place emphasis on the cradle that feeds the high institutions has become very important.
” Our attention will in this dispensation be skewed in favor of Primary and Secondary Education. This will require direct physical assessment of what is on the ground”.

The Commissioner expressed satisfaction with the turnout of teachers in some of the schools visited, praised the Principal of OLS Anyigba for his effort in ensuring discipline and punctuality.

Hon. Jones warned that any Principal and Teacher found wanting in punctuality will be punished, pointing out that the State Government has invested heavily on the education sector in the last administration.

Government has invested heavily on education for the past few years through a budgetary allocation that takes 30% of our annual budget. The effort of the state Government in education is visible and verifiable”.

” If discipline is lacking, no punctuality of our teachers to schools, if there is a knowledge gap and teachers cannot impact knowledge as is required, then something is missing”.

”Those with penchant for late coming in our schools will not be condone. We must not toy with the future of the coming generation”.
Highlights of the unscheduled visits to Schools and Colleges by the Commissioner is the review of register by the Commissioner to ascertain attendance and punctuality.