Akwa Ibom State Government to close down illegal tertiary institutions

Mixed reactions have been trailing the state government’s decision to close down more than one thousand, two hundred primary, secondary and tertiary institutions considered to be illegal.

One of such is coming from the Civil Liberties Organisation, Akwa  Ibom State Branch, which appreciates the efforts of government to ensure that Akwa Ibom youths are properly educated to enable them compete favourably in an increasingly competitive environment of a globalised world.

While condemning the citing ill-equipped schools, which constitute a setback in the State’s march to a well educated citizenry, the Organization urged the government to do everything possible to check the trend and ensure that only schools that meet the standards are allowed to operate in the state.

It advised the state government to take another look at the state of learning and teaching environment in public schools, which necessitated the rush by parents to withdraw their wards from public schools, noting that even teachers in public schools do not send their children to public schools.

The CLO, in a statement by its Chairman, Otuekong Franklyn Isong, and the Campaigns/Publicity Secretary, Comrade David Augustine, attributed the proliferation of private schools in the state to what it calls the comatose nature of standards in public schools, established to fill the existing gap in education at that level.

The group urged the Akwa Ibom State government to rehabilitate existing public schools across the state, equip them to make way for a more conducive learning and teaching environment, recruit more teachers, retrain those already in service, give them befitting  remuneration and cater for the welfare of retired teachers in the State.