By Daniel Tyokua
The Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, Education secretariat said it has mapped out better security measures in all schools across the territory.
Leramoh Abdulrazaq, the FCT Acting Education Secretary, said the schools are deploying the services of local vigilantes to strengthen security round their institutions and also dispel fears of attacks by kidnappers.
The Acting Education Secretary who is also the Director of Administration and Finance, DAF, stated this while fielding questions from journalists shortly after 2021 Africa top school awards held in Abuja centre.
Leramoh who represented the Permanent Secretary, Mr. Adesola Olusade, at the event organised by Africa Brands Review, said in addition to regular security personnel, vigilantes are being engaged by communities and schools to further strengthen the security in the school.
He said, “Even before the recent escalation of force alarm that has generated a lot of tension across the city. We have in the past ensured that the security of our school, of our students and teachers are at its best. In doing so, we have been working closely with all the security outfits including the Police, the Civil Defence, the Military outpost in Abuja to ensure that a network of security arrangement is developed around all our schools.
“Apart from this, we have also ensured that schools interact with their host communities, so that the community takes ownership of providing safety for the school. Traditional rulers and other local stakeholders have also been mobilized in addition to the regular security personnel we also have vigilantes that are being engaged by the communities and some by the schools to further strengthen the security around the school. I can assure you that in FCT today, we have no concern security that would be of any serious problem for us.”
On the awards presented to some staff of the Education Secretariat, the permanent Secretary said it’s a fair assessment of efforts made at repositioning the education sector in the FCT.
Earlier, the Executive Secretary of the Africa Brand Review and organisers of the awards, Mr. Josheph Ayodele, said the FCTA has done a lot in the area of training and retraining of teachers and principals, thus leading to improvement in students’ performance in the public examinations.
He therefore urge school administrators to take interest in the continuous development of their teachers as schools, adding that the recent COVID-19 pandemic has further brought to the fore the need for schools to transform and be abreast of modern realities.
