One hundred and seventy million naira is to be spent on monthly basis for the implementation of 2009/ 2016 teachers’ promotion arrears in Cross River State for teachers working under the auspices of the State Universal Basic Education SUBEB.
The amount is to be used by the state Universal Basic Education SUBEB for the clearing off of all backlogs of all arrears and salaries of teachers under the auspices of SUBEB.
The Executive Chairman for the State Universal Basic Education, Dr. Stephen Odey disclosed this while briefing newsmen on giant stride made by the board since the Prof. Ben Ayade led-administration came on board in 2015.
Odey appealed to those waiting to benefit from the implementation of the 2009/2016 teachers promotion arrears to be patient, as the board remained determined to commence payment to beneficiaries once funds are released from the coffers of the Cross River State government to the board for onward payment.
Odey stated that because of the fact that Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State was a lover of education Ayade was out to ensure that he does whatever that was necessary to ensure that there was sustainability in the educational sub-sector of the state and that Senator Professor Ben Ayade believes Education is the key to sustainable development, state governor went further to commit so much to see the that the sector grows.
He said that it was on the basis of such premise that the Governor released the counterpart funds of 2012-2015 to the board a development he said had helped in the execution of several projects across the three senatorial districts of the state.
“I can assure you that in every Local Government, we’ve done a lot of infrastructural development ranging from provision of plastic chairs, furniture, tables, sporting activities, supply of computers with solar energy to power them”.
The Cross River State SUBEB boss stressed that within the 2years that they have been on board, the board has succeeded in executing 327 projects across the 18 Local Government Areas of the state, adding that the stride has attracted the issuance of Certificates of completion of job to over 182 contractors who have completed and handed over their projects to the board.
He said that he is quite aware of the fact that with execution of such projects succor would have been given to many rural dwellers who hitherto have been struggling to send their wards to faraway places to school due to unavailability of any good school within their vicinity.
“Apart from provision of some basic teaching/teaching infrastructures to the schools SUBEB has supplied magnetic box, table tennis to improve sporting activities, over 67,000 plastic tables and chairs, 85,000 textbooks with support from UBEC”.
Odey who claimed to be passionate to move basic education in the State to the next level said, “Our duty is to implement what have been approved from Abuja. We must follow the stringent guidelines of the procedure adopted by the UBEC and SUBEB across the country.
On the issue of remodeling and fine tuning of Schools to meet the international standards, Odey said, “We’ve tried to absorb the Model School approach as introduced by the UBEC Secretary, Dr. Boboye.
According to him, “For the first time SUBEB is running 3 Junior Secondary schools across the 3 Senatorial Districts of Yala, Abi and Akpabuyo with carefully selected teachers.
“This is the first time SUBEB is running such a project with 3 Junior Secondary schools located in Abi, Yala and Akpabuyo LGAs. Abi has already commenced education activities, Yala started 2 years ago while Akpabuyo is just starting.
The schools are boarding schools with Yala and Abi currently having 115 and 85 students”. Odey maintained.
He said that it is the mandate of SUBEB to run both Primary and Junior secondary schools across the state.
On the allegations that the SUBEB had swept under the carpet the teacher’s interview it conducted in August 22, 2017 Odey said about 1000 teachers have been selected adding that the application it wrote to the governor for approval and subsequent released of funds is yet to scale through adding that when once that is done letters will be released to successful candidates for resumption of work.
“Once we get approval before the end of the year, we will engage the teachers.
“I promise we are going to take the best teachers for the Junior Secondary schools”.
Odey maintained that the Cross River SUBEB under his watch and his team has been rated as the best by UBEC following the execution of a gigantic project that it is executing in partnership with the UBEC (the British-Canadian International School) located in Obudu Local Government Area of Cross River State which is to be commissioned in May this year.
In his words Odey said, “The Canadian government is keen to give their manpower. The school is a complete boarding school with international standard. It is cited in Obudu due to the climatic condition and in lieu to add value to the Obudu Cattle Ranch resort”.
The board chairman boasted that, “SUBEB has done so much in the area of educating and training of teachers currently ongoing to meet up the current trend in education”.
