Cross River Govt Flags Off 2025/2026 Annual School Census

 Speaking at the flag-off ceremony which held  Monday in Calabar at the State Ministry of Education after a protracted meeting with Education Secretaries and other officials in the sector, the Commissioner for Education, Senator Stephen Odey, said the era of gambling with figures in the sector is over.

Senator Odey stressed that no meaningful development can be achieved without accurate data, and called on all stakeholders to join hands to lift the sector to a higher pedestal. He said: “In the past, is that they don’t have data? We need reliable data that will help the sector move to an enviable height.”

Explaining the challenges of planning without data, the Commissioner stated: “If we go to schools today and there are 50 students, let’s know that we have 50 students. So that when we are planning, assuming just like we are distributing books, we don’t gamble. We know that this school has 50 students, we have to send 50 books.”

He disclosed that the ministry has now gone digital to ensure transparency and accountability in the distribution of materials, adding: “You can see how we have gone digital. We send material to school and we track it.

“We make sure it gets to the end users.” He further noted: “If we don’t have accurate data, how do we perform? We cannot plan for any educational development without accurate data.” He maintained.

On staff performance, Odey revealed that some staff members were found to be ineffective, prompting calls for their suspension.

He said, “We have decided to give them  query. Because their inability of their staff to perform shows that they themselves are not effective.

“We threatened to suspend them. But management pleaded that we allow correct the problem, we have  given them few days to fix whatever lapses that we noticed. I have decided to withdraw that suspension. They will have to be issued a query.”

Clarifying the number of those affected, the Commissioner said, “I think they are about three to four persons involved. There are about three or four of them. It’s to enable them to sit up. We can’t keep people in a position that are not effective,” he said.