– Shame mischief makers
The record of achievements of the Executive Secretary of the Imo State Secondary Education Management Board (SEMB), Anyikude E.I.O (Esq), have continued to excite education stakeholders in and outside Imo State.
Right from December 12, 2018, when Anyikude who has the following qualifications; NCE , B.ed ,LLb, ,BL, LLM(
MemberTRCN) took over as the Executive Secretary of SEMB and hit the ground running, it has been a harvest of outstanding achievements through re-orientation, revamping and repositioning of the management and administration.
According to a senior staff of the office who pleaded anonymity,prior to her advent as Executive Secretary of SEMB, Staff were virtually redundant and stagnant with no examination for promotion. There were equally inadequate supervisors of schools, insufficient running cost for office and schools, lack of capacity building for staff while most qualified and experienced teachers were clustered and confined within the metropolis. Above all, there was massive infrastructural decay in almost all the public secondary schools in Imo State and a non-functional payroll and management software. There were lack of science laboratories, libraries and science resource centres.
The source said,”No sooner Anyikude took over as Executive Secretary of SEMB, than things started happening to the excitement and satisfaction of education stakeholders across the country. For instance, appointment of duty Principal in SEMB is now based on examination and merit. There has been massive rationalization and even distribution of teachers while about 4000 teachers have been trained and retrained on the 21st century teaching and learning strategies. Besides, six supervisory teams to monitor the six educational zones have been appointed with the introduction of “you need a skill before you graduate propect” so as to ensure that students will not solely be dependent on white collar jobs for life but can gainfully employ themselves after school.
“Another innovation introduced by Anyikude as Executive Secretary of SEMB is orientation programme for students in a bid to ensure that discipline is maintained and avert the incident of cultism and other social vices prevalent in schools. There is no gain saying the fact that guidance and counseling department has so far been revamped and a Director appointed to take charge of the department. This is important because it helps students in career choice, thus avoiding anything that may deter them from attaining their respective academic goals”, he stated.
Continuing,he said,”Other achievements credited to Anyikude include multi-linguism, open forum and the award of honesty which was given to four (4) teachers who returned their over-paid salaries to government. SEMB can proudly say it now has a functional boardroom with the old dilapidated boardroom lavishly refurbished and resuscitated to the extent that crucial meetings and other social activities are presently held in the boardroom thereby saving money for hall rental. To ensure that Igbo language and culture did not go into early extinction, the National Anthem has been translated into Igbo language, while the use of Igbo language has now become compulsory in carrying out all official activities in schools including teaching of English language.
Some other new ideas such as Christmas cantata 2019, compulsory valentine message for all the schools, quiz competition, debating and spelling Bee competitions have been sustained while sports have been made compulsory as it forms part of the curricular. To involve students in decision making, the Executive Secretary of SEMB, Anyikude has inaugurated the Council of Senior Prefects to enable them role model their peers for better approach to life and education. Above all, is the publication of Education Magazine for the public enlightenment on Secondary Education Management Board activities.
But while many in the state and beyond have applauded the remarkable achievements of Anyikude E.I.O, there are few others who are envious of these outstanding records.
Suffice this to state that some of the detractors went to the extent of protesting against these unique innovations for selfish reasons.
As gathered,one of such persons who have struggled without success to frustrate these desired reforms by the SEMB excutive Secretary is one of the Directors in the establishment(namewitheld).He had allegedly defrauded a staff the sum of five Hundred Thousand naira ( #500,000) in 2018 with promise of influencing her posting to Owerri zone,from Orlu where she was serving as Director of Schools and extend her service year.
In a petition dated 16th November,2018,addressed to the Commissioner of Education through the Permanent Secretary,the staff narrated how she was deceived into parting with such huge sum of money in order to gain undue advantage over her colleagues.It was also gathered that the said Director has been in the business of falsifying records of Secondary School principals and other staff thereby extending their service years.
Others who feel Anyikude has become a stumbling block to them to continue with the nefarious activities are leaving no stone unturned to blackmail the Nkwerre born educationist out of office.
