I’m Impressed With the Quality of Work at British/Canadian School, Says Ayade

Cross River State governor, Prof. Ben Ayade says he is impressed with the quality of work ongoing at the site of the British/Canadian International School in Obudu Local Government Area of the state.

Ayade, who said this at Kakum in Obudu shortly after inspecting the site, maintained that the idea of modelling a school of such standard emanated from the challenges of quality education.

“I am impressed with the quality of work and not too happy with the speed. The idea for establishing this school arose from the challenges of quality education. I do know that painting classrooms does not change the quality of education neither does it improve the quality and learning, hence my zeal to make a difference.

‘We keep saying that education standard is falling. How do we change it? Not building more classes but if I take one classroom, let me do it properly so that when you are in United Kingdom and you come here, you will say, wooh, is this Nigeria?” Ayade said.

The governor who disclosed that he earlier took a tour of the best schools in Canada and Britain, as well as spent two weeks in the United Kingdom to participate in the design of the project, argued that “there is no way a child will grow and study under this condition that he will not be responsible.”

Giving insight on the features of the school which is being built in partnership with the British Academy, Ayade said, “it has an administrative block, refectory, 24/7 internet connectivity in the library, better laboratory furniture than those found in Nigeria universities and professionally inclined white teachers that will be mixed race. So, this is like a mini university built for a junior secondary school.

“I don’t expect any quality of teaching better than what we have here and I don’t expect any junior secondary school to have the standard and quality of what I am building here because as a professor, it is my responsibility to make a difference.”

Ayade explained that, “because of the sophistication of this institution, this will be one major school to beat in the entire state and it will produce future technocrats, the ICT wizards and all the computer engineers will be trained here.”

On whether the school will be affordable, the governor said, “if you are an indigene of Cross River, once you pass your entrance into this school, your tuition is fully prepared, so the poorest man child who is brilliant can come to this school but the entrance examination will be thorough. Once you attend a primary school, you write the entrance examination to the school and this will be done across Africa.”

Project manager of the construction company charged with building the school, Phil-El Okoye, assured that the company will not compromise the approved standard of the school, adding that, “there exist cordial relationship between the workers and the community.”

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