Educationist charges stakeholders on ways to revive public school system

June 13, 2017 


By Ijendu Iheaka

 
Mr Rufus Emerenini, the Principal, Senior Secondary Section, Dority International School, Aba, says quality public school education can best be  revived through the collaboration of teachers, parents and government at all levels.
 
The principal made the suggestion in an interview with our reporter in Aba during the visit to the school by the 2015 Nigeria’s representative to the World Biology Olympiad, Master Henry Okoro.

Emerenini said that it was possible for the public schools in the country to produce quality, high-flying students, if parents, teachers and government would play their roles to give the best for the students.

He said that the poor standard of education in Nigeria’s public schools could be improved through government provision of the required facilities and paying quality salaries to staff promptly.

Emerenini stressed that key subjects such as English and Mathematics should have at least five teachers handling them in a school to enable them pay adequate attention to students individually at all classes.

The principal further called on government to use quality supervisors who would monitor how the teachers work to cover their syllabuses and schemes of work and students' performances.

Emerenini also said that the teachers should, however, work hard on students by giving extra coaching time to those lagging behind individually.

“The teachers should maintain closer ties with their students in order to monitor their efforts to ensure they cover the curriculum and even go beyond it.

“Hard work is the key to remarkable achievements,” he said.

The principal said that parents, as agents of socialization, should monitor their children’s performances regularly as well as encourage them when necessary.

Emerenini said that Dority International School had produced hundreds of quality students who had won awards and scholarships within Nigeria and overseas because it believed in hard work and collaborations.

He said that three students of the school qualified to represent Nigeria at the 2017 editions of the International Biology and Chemistry and Pan-African Mathematics Olympiads.

"Anthony Nwachukwu, will represent Nigeria in Biology Olympiad in the UK and Benjamin Chibueze will represent the country at the Chemistry Olympiad in Thailand.

"Margaret Chinwike will represent Nigeria at the 2017 edition of the Pan-African Mathematics Olympiad for girls in Morocco", he said.

Okoro, a former student of the Dority International School, is now on scholarship at  the American University of Nigeria (AUN) where he is a second year student studying Environmental Science and Bio-Medicine.

He represented Nigeria in Denmark in the 2015 Biology Olympiad as an SS2 student and is currently visiting the school to encourage the students.

Dority International School is a private nursery, primary and secondary school owned by an Aba-based African American entrepreneur, Mrs Zovannah Onuma.