In
the year 2007, the governor of Ebonyi State introduced a boarding school system
into the education section to improve the quality of education in the state
through the re-introduction of boarding system in secondary schools in the
state. This can be seen an pg 47, the Guardian newspaper Thursday,
September 20th 2007. Although
the said policy continued to elicit mixed reactions from a cross section of the
residents of the state. Addressing
newsmen on his achievements within the
first 100 days in office, governor Elechi disclosed that contracts valued
N700 million have been awarded to
reliabilities existing infrastructure
and construct new ones to flag off the new boarding system in the state.
He explained that two schools each in the three senatorial zones of the state have been selected for the new boarding approach, which he hoped would increase the quality of education in the state and inculcate a sense of belonging and brotherhood which he said could ensure lasting harmonious co-existence among citizens of the state.
He explained that two schools each in the three senatorial zones of the state have been selected for the new boarding approach, which he hoped would increase the quality of education in the state and inculcate a sense of belonging and brotherhood which he said could ensure lasting harmonious co-existence among citizens of the state.
But an separate
interviews with the guardian an the planned policy thrust, chairman of Ebonyi
Governorship candidates forum, Mr. Anthony Okah and the director of Holy Ghost
secondary of schools, Abakaliki Dr Phillip C Okoh, expressed different
perspectives to the new policy.
Okah said “ first of all I want to say that there is no doubt that the entire educational
system needs a policy change if you are changing a policy you
must consult the people, consult
the national union teachers , parents teacher association as well as proprietors
of schools, you need to find
out why the boarding school system
collapsed in the first instance.
These and many
more was said concerning the boarding school system policy. He went
further to frown at the N700
million set aside to rehabilitate
infrastructure for the policy change,
saying that if would not deal objectively with the attendant dangers, he
also pointed out that most parents would not agree to their children staying in
boarding houses especially the girls for fear of immorality, and also that
“acolody living close to a school would put his child in a boarding
house”.
However in spite of Okah’s negative perception of the boarding
system, the proprietor of holy ghost
secondary school Dr Okoh said boarding system remains the real side of
schooling pointing out that if confers
high responsibility on both the teachers and students.