Stakeholders want Benue schools returned to owners

He said: “The general consensus at the stakeholders’ meeting is that the schools be returned to their owners. However, the government will continue to grant aid to these schools to build up the education base of the state”.

According to him, the state government will send a bill to the House of Assembly on the resolution of the stakeholders so that a legal framework could be established for the return of the schools to their original owners in the interest of the state.

The education commissioner noted that the legal framework would also determine the involvement of the state government in education and the school fees regime to be operational.

He, however, said that the state is not contemplating uniform school fees regime because it is interested in competition between the schools that would be returned and the state-owned schools.

Ashaver further informed that the meeting agreed that the state government should deliberately encourage the return to boarding system as part of efforts to revive the decaying education system.

He said: “We agreed that we should substantially return to the boarding schools system. The schools still involved in the boarding systems are not involved in the massive examination malpractice, which is destroying education in the state.

“The issue of miracle centres that are on the rise is because students wander about seeking where to pass examinations. This would not have been possible where boarding facilities exist and the students kept together to learn. We have examples in Mount Saint Gabriel; Government College, Makurdi; Government College, Katsina-Ala, Queens, among others. We have to return to the boarding schools”.