By Nelson Utip
BayelsaPrime Project, a pilot project of The Bayelsa State Government in four local government areas of Bayelsa State, has resulted in about 40,000 pupils enrolling in public schools in the state.
While talking to the BayelsaPrime Project operators on Tuesday in Government House, Yenagoa, The Deputy Governor of the state, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, said emphasis should be on monitoring and supervision of teachers to ensure the sustainability of the project.
He said the introduction of fingerprinting to monitor teachers’ attendance coupled with the adoption of Output to Purpose Review (OPR) would improve the quality of education and help in the assessment of teachers’ performance. BayelsaPrime Project was tested in the upland local government areas of Kolokuma/Opokuma, Ogbia, Sagbama and Yenagoa, while the second phase will capture the riverine local government areas of Brass, Ekeremor, Nembe and Southern Ijaw.
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In a statement, Doubara Atasi, Media Aide to the Deputy Governor said Ewhrudjakpo praised the team for its efforts towards educational development in the state and stressed that education remained a government priority and was bent on the project’s success. The Deputy Governor said it is the desire of the state government for the project to outlive the present administration, emphasizing the importance of the operators to ensure its impact was felt at all times in the state educational sector.
Ewhrudjakpor elucidated the role of manpower in any organisation positing that regardless of the level of technology involved in human activities, the importance of the human factor cannot be overemphasized.
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He urged the BayelsaPrime operators not to keep up the good work on the successes so far achieved, he said they should pay attention to areas they needed to improve upon, particularly in the supervision of teachers. w“We want to commend you for what you are doing. Education makes it easier for people to contribute to society and difficult for them to be manipulated. “We do not wish the programme to end soon. However, we want sustainability. We want a situation whereby even if Bayelsa Prime ends today, it leaves lasting legacies in the educational sector.
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“Sustainability is the hallmark of every programme. While we commend you for what you are doing we want you to make sure that it is sustainable and spreads across the entire state. “I really want you to look at how we can monitor the teachers; that is a key area. Yes, the students are doing good; are the teachers doing good as well? A person who is being supervised works differently from those not being supervised.”
The Deputy Governor said. Linus Adaikwu, Managing Director of BayelsaPrime in his remarks said the visit was to update The Deputy Governor on the progress the programme has recorded in some of the pilot public primary schools in four local government areas of the state, emphasizing that BayelsaPrime has enhanced the reading capacity and literacy level of pupils as well as facilitated the enrollment of about 40,000 pupils through its “Come Back To School Campaigns”.
