From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
Former president, Goodluck Jonathan, will deliver the keynote address at the Bayelsa Education Summit billed to hold between Monday, February 7 and Thursday, February 10.
Bayelsa State Commissioner for Education, Gentle Emelah who disclosed this at a press conference over the weekend said Jonathan being an academic is expected to share useful strategies that would lead to the development of the education sector in the state.
He said the summit was conceptualised to produce forward looking ideas and vision for the next 15 years for the education sector.
Emelah said 25 years after creation of the state, there were 547 primary schools, 195 secondary schools and nine tertiary institutions in the state funded and supervised by the Ministry of Education. He, however, said two inspection tours undertaken by the ministry highlighted teething problems besetting the Bayelsa education sector.
He said the state government was able to achieve accreditation for all programmes in its tertiary institutions, but listed infrastructural needs, availability of quality teachers, general enrolment numbers in schools and transition rates from primary to secondary schools as factors that could shape policy enactment for the education sector.
He said the state government had built new secondary schools and made commitment to building one technical school in each local government area.
Emelah said in spite of the laudable achievements recorded by the administration of Governor Douye Diri in the education sector, the strategy of the government required overhauling, especially in the face of shift to Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and Science, Technology, Engineering and Math(STEM).