By Uchino Amatey
The Cross River State Universal Basic Education Board (CR-SUBEB), has commenced a 3 weeks intensive monitoring exercise in primary schools across the State.
The exercise which is on-going simultaneously across the state by teams made up of SUBEB Quality Assurance Officers, Local Government Education Authority (LGEA) Quality Assurance Staff, amongst others, is to ensure effective teaching and learning and to check absenteeism.
The Director of Quality Assurance, SUBEB, Mr Barth Onyi said a total of 180 schools, selected from two Local government Areas (LGAs), from each of the three senatorial zones will be visited.
Speaking during the monitoring exercise at Calabar Oil Palm Estate (COPE) Primary School, Pamol, Odukpani LGA, Mr Onyi charged teachers to ensure that pupils from primary 4 to 6 read and write fluently in order to compete with their peers across the Country. He further frowned against the poor attitude of teachers towards work and advised against absenteeism.
Explaining the role evaluators play in the monitoring exercise, SUBEB’s Quality Assurance Evaluator, Mrs Juliana Agwupuye said
“We come to schools early, before the assembly starts to see how the learners are coming in. If they are coming on their own, by foot or are being dropped off by a parent figure. We watch out to see late teachers. When the classes begin, we sit through every lesson being taught that day to watch teachers’ engagement with learners. After each lesson, we ask learners questions to see if they have an understanding of the subjects being taught.”
“We check the lesson note of the teacher to see if it is in line with the curriculum, we check pupil’s attendance and lesson notes to see if they have been marked by the teachers. We check to see if the classrooms are properly decorated with instructional materials, such as charts. We also check to see if the teachers are using instructional materials and encourage them to improvise where necessary. At the close of School, we meet with the teachers and point out areas they need to work on, mistakes they made and correct them,” she explained.
Mrs Agwupuye said the exercise is important to improve the quality of teaching and learning in schools. She stated that, regular and continuous monitoring will keep the teachers alert and alive to their responsibilities.
She further stated non-usage of instructional materials by teachers during lesson delivery as one of the major observations recorded in the field.
Commending SUBEB for the exercise, Evaluator, Odukpani Local Government Education Authority (LGEA), Enow Mbi said the experience has broaden her knowledge on monitoring.
In her words “We have been doing evaluations in the Local Government, but this is a different experience entirely, because I can see that the evaluation you do in SUBEB is very in-depth. You go into every aspect of teaching and learning. So it has really broaden my knowledge and understanding on how to evaluate, because it is very detailed. Writing my reports have taken me more time than it used to do in the past.”
Mbi stated that the exercise will improve the basic education sector and arm evaluators with the necessary skills to carry out their jobs effectively.
According to her “I see that SUBEB is out to make improvement on the system, it is not just about going out to fulfill all righteousness. We want to make impact, so we go into details to ensure teachers are doing what they have to do and doing it the way it should be done. It is also helping us evaluators to sit up, to know the right things to do, the approach to use in teaching and even the note of lesson. Because, if the note of lesson is not well written or presented, then we cannot achieve our aim, “she maintained.
The Local Government Areas being visited include; Odukpani and Akpabuyo, Southern Senatorial Zone, in the Central Zone, Yakurr and Ikom, while, the Nothern Senatorial Zone comprise of Ogoja and Obanliku.
