The Federal Government is collaborating with the UN Special Envoy on Global Education to ensure security in all schools in the country.

The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Dr MacJohn Nwaobiala, disclosed this in an address he delivered at the annual Speech and Prize-Giving Day ceremony of King’s College Lagos.

The permanent secretary, who was the special guest of honour at the event, said the collaboration was aimed at providing a pragmatic response to the protection of schools.

He added that it was also to prevent future attacks in schools across the country.

According to him, the initiative is equally in a bid to ensure uninterrupted education for the Nigerian-child.

“The Federal government in collaboration with the UN Special Envoy for Global Education, Mr Gordon Brown, and a coalition of Nigeria Business leaders, introduced the Safe Schools Initiative. Through this intervention, the Federal government is also reconstructing the infrastructure of schools destroyed as well as protecting children,” he said.

The permanent secretary called on school authorities to intensify sensitisation programmes to ensure that unhygienic practices that created high risk conditions for the spread of Ebola disease are adequately addressed.

Nwaobiala said government had, in an effort to achieve a more conducive learning environment in Unity Colleges, continued to provide educational facilities which include e-library.

He added that emphasis had also been laid on training and re-training of teachers for effective teaching and learning outcomes.

According to him, “New teaching staff have also been recruited to address the shortage of teachers in the Federal Unity Colleges.

“ICT and Trade subjects for entrepreneurship as compulsory cross-cutting core subjects have been introduced.

“These efforts are aimed at providing the required skills for job creation , poverty reduction and making our students self reliant for sustainable national development.”

He commended parents for their sacrifices to ensure their children acquire quality education and teachers for their commitment to education and the success of their students.

He urged the graduating students to be worthy ambassadors of the college as well as strive to assist their alma mater.

Earlier in his address, the Principal of the college, Mr Oladele Olapeju, expressed concern over government’s policies on education which he said tended to lay undue emphasis on examinations to the detriment of knowledge acquisition.

His words: “While agreeing that examination is essential in measuring learning achievement, the situation is very disturbing as our graduating students spend almost five months crisscrossing one examination hall to the other with barely little time to study.

“The experience is too harrowing and on the long run costly to knowledge acquisition

“The Joined Admissions and Matriculation Board must strive to adjust its examination date to July ending every year in order to allow the final year students concentrate on their studies.”

Olapaju said another similar disturbing issue in the school calendar was the issue of time for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), which was often completed early in May.

He noted that students at this level sit at home idle for months awaiting to transit to SS 1.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that four major projects in the college comprising two state-of-the art barbing saloons, an ICT laboratory, staff quarters and a 360KVA generator were inaugurated during the event. (NAN)

•Photo shows UN Sec-Gen Ban Ki-moon.

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