THE Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufai, has charged school principals and teachers in the country to be up and doing so as to improve academic performances of the students in public examinations, especially in core science subjects.She gave this charge after inspecting facilities at the Federal Science and Technical College, Aka Offot, Akwa Ibom State.According to her, the federal government was not happy with the way students in government schools were performing in public examinations, saying that, the Federal Ministry of Education in conjunction with other agencies would render the needed assistance to schools in the country in order to change the status quo.The minister, who was on official visit to the school to assess the level of infrastructural facilities, said there was need to do more in meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan transformational agenda in ensuring quality in the nation's education sector.She explained that the performance of the students in core science subject which is 65 per cent was not encouraging; adding that, such does not befits the country's status as a centre of excellence.The Minister charged the school administrators to aspire for 89 to 90 percent in core science subjects, observing that, the school's performance in woodwork and other practical subjects was commendable.'If the students are ready to do well, on our part also, we need to put in more efforts. The message we have is that we really need to do more. Although laboratories are been renovated and furnished, we are not really happy with the equipment that we saw. Even at the ICT centre, we have computers but they are yet to be installed because of certain reasons.'So what we would ask the school to do even if it is in conjunction with the Ministry is that we need to equip the laboratories as soon as possible. We need to provide more textbooks and mount all the computers as soon as possible. There is no point having a computer lying down in the store.'Even the performance of the students in core science subject which is 65 per cent is not encouraging and does not suit us as a centre of excellence. We should aspire for 89 to 90 per cent. At the Federal Unity College in Enugu, all the sciences they had were over 90 per cent. It was only in mathematics students didn't perform well.'If we have rarely 65 per cent here in core sciences, it means we have to look at what we are doing in terms of teaching, learning and in terms of the provision of equipment to ensure that we do more. If wehave 65 per cent here as average for the sciences here and even in mathematics, it could even be below 50 per cent, it means that we are no longer the centre of excellence that we are suppose to be.'I urge you as school principal and teachers to be up to yourresponsibilities so that whatever is supposed to be done should be done. We are here to come and see what is happening, if we stay and we don't expect then it means that we have so many issues that we are not familiar with. So please address your teacher thoroughly, ensure thateverything is in place for them to do what they are supposed to do.Don't wait for us to come', she said.
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