Date: 2018-08-07

The Kwara State government has restated its commitment to the teaching and learning of English Language and Mathematics as core subjects in secondary schools.

The state commissioner for Education and Human Capital Development, Hajia Bilikisu Oniyangi gave the assurance yesterday while speaking at the grand finale of the maiden edition of Kwara State Inter Secondary Schools English and Mathematics competition organised by a nongovernmental organisation, Saliu Mustapha Foundation in collaboration with the Kwara State government.

The commissioner who spoke through the director, School Services of the Ministry, Mr Timothy Oyewole, stressed the importance of English Language and Mathematics in both basic and secondary schools, describing the two subjects as the core of every discipline which are peculiar requisite for admission into tertiary institutions.

While speaking on factors responsible for failure of students in these two core subjects, Hajia Oniyangi traced them to lackadaisical attitudes on the part of the students, and exposure to information gadgets especially mobile phones which have affected time for studying.

She said the state government provided enough teachers for both English and Mathematics in all public schools in the state, charging the teachers to be more proactive in the discharge of their respective duties.

While delivering a lecture on the theme of the competition "Investment in Education, the Solution to all problems ", the immediate past director of the Centre for International Studies, University of Ilorin, Prof Mohammed Ibrahim, called for more investment into the educational sector, saying that the current investment is abysmally low which must be increased to reinvigorate the sector.

Ibrahim also advocated the need for training and retraining of teachers of the core subjects, while asking the students to be more focused and devote more time for their education by avoiding anything that could cause distractions.

Earlier, the spokesman of the Foundation, Mallam Mahmood Olayinka Alaya, had earlier disclosed that 30 students qualified for the grand finale of the competition with sixty schools that participated in the competition across the three senatorial districts of the state.

While speaking with Journalists, the founder of the Foundation, Mallam Saliu Mustapha, said the foundation was established to touch the lives of downtrodden people in the society, the students and those with different health challenges.

Mustapha noted that the foundation aimed to impact on the lives of the people in the immediate environment, saying that government alone should not be saddled with the responsibility of providing the needs of the people, hence the need for nongovernmental organisations, wealthy individuals to support government at all levels in this directive.