Abia bans graduation ceremonies for nursery, primary schools

By Steve Oko

UMUAHIA – Abia State Government has banned graduation ceremonies for nursery school pupils, as well as primary school pupils and secondary school students who are not in exit classes.

The government also abolished compulsory combination of textbook and workbook by publishers which makes it impossible for younger siblings to use textbooks already used by their older ones.

The government said the decision is binding on both private and public schools.

Commissioner for Information, Prince Okey Kanu, disclosed this while briefing newsmen on the outcome of this week’s State Executive Council meeting presided over by Governor Alex Otti.

The decision, according to him, was taken to save parents from exploitation by school proprietors.

He further explained that education stakeholders in the state had already taken similar position following complaints by parents.

“Let me also inform you that recently, there was an education stakeholders meeting involving the state heads of basic education, officials of WAEC, NECO, NUT, ANCOPS, ETA, publishers, NAMSAN, etc,” said Kanu.

According to the Information Commissioner, “Abia State Government has agreed that going forward, graduation ceremonies in our schools would only be limited to primary 6 pupils and SS3 students.”

He further said: “All these graduation ceremonies are creating a deep hole in the pockets of parents across the state, so they took that decision to ensure that parents stop complaining in that regard.”

The Commissioner disclosed that the government had adjusted postings of the newly-recruited teachers to suit those who made complaints about the places they were posted for various reasons.

He said the state government had concluded a two-week intensive training for them so as to equip them for 21st-century teaching.

Contributing, the Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Elder Goodluck Ubochi, announced that the final and updated posting of the newly recruited teachers would be published before the end of the week.

On textbooks, he said: “There are so many schools that are difficult to access. But one thing is that our children are also in these schools, and we can’t just leave them. People must be posted to these areas.

“But what the government has done is to provide some level of incentive, meaning that those who will willingly choose to go to such places to serve will have some encouragement in the form of cash incentive.”

On the separation of textbooks from workbooks, he said the state intervened to save parents from exploitation, adding that stakeholders in the education sector had also agreed on that.

“Major decisions were taken as it had to do with the economy of our parents. So we limited the graduation ceremonies to only those who are exiting one level of education or the other, primarily since there could be graduation.

“Then the next would be those exiting the secondary school education by secondary. There could be a celebration for them. But those of them in nursery school have not known how such kids will be subjected to graduation and big graduation gowns will be made.

“Another thing that would also impress parents is the issue of textbooks. It’s another thing that publishers would combine both the textbook and the workbook. Which means that by the time a child ends a particular class with a given textbook, that textbook cannot be used by any other person.

“So we decided that the publishers should separate the textbook from the workbook. So the workbook would be used for an assignment for a given child, whereas the textbook would remain relevant for as many people, as many younger ones as would have access to that,” he explained.

The commissioner added that “the government encourages parents to make sure that they pick the basic education certificates of their children.”

He warned schools against charging more than N2,000 for collection of primary six and basic education certificates while that of secondary school would not be more than N4,000.

Commissioner for Health, Professor Enoch Uche, Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Publicity, Mr Ferdinand Ekeoma, were present at the briefing.

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