Graduation ceremonies in nursery, primary and basic secondary schools may soon be a thing of the past as Abia State government is considering limiting such ceremonies for pupils and students only to those in Primary 6 and SS3 in secondary schools in the state.
Commissioner for Information, Prince Okey Kanu, who disclosed this on Monday, at Government House, Umuahia, while briefing newsmen on the outcome of this week’s State Executive Council meeting presided over by Governor Alex Otti, hinted that equally being considered being abolished is the compulsory combination of textbook and workbook by publishers which makes it impossible for younger siblings to make use of such textbooks.
Kanu said government was considering abolishing graduation ceremonies organised by private schools for nursery pupils, as well as primary school pupils and secondary students who are not in exiting classes.
He explained that the decisions on graduation ceremonies and combination of textbook with workbook would be taken in line with recent resolutions by education stakeholders.
He said that the when state government ratifies its decision, graduation ceremonies in the schools would only be limited to Primary 6 pupils and SS3 students.
“All these graduation ceremonies are creating a deep hole in the pockets of parents across the state, so they took that decision to ensure that parents stop complaining in that regard,” Prince Kanu stated.
Contributing, Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Elder Goodluck Ubochi, said that decisions of education stakeholders to the effect that only pupils and students of exiting classes should hold graduation ceremony and, that textbooks should be separated from workbook to enable siblings make use of textbooks used by their elder ones were being considered by the State Executive Council.
“Major decisions were taken as it had to do with the economy of our parents. So we limited the graduation ceremonies to only those who are exiting one level of education or the other, since there could be graduation.
“Then the next would be those exiting the secondary school education by secondary. There could be a celebration for them. But those of them in nursery school, we have not known how such kids will be subjected to graduation and big graduation gowns will be made.
“Another thing that would also impress parents is the issue of textbooks. It’s another thing that publishers would combine both the textbook and the workbook; which means that by the time a child ends a particular class with a given textbook, that textbook cannot be used by any other person.
“So we decided that the publishers should separate the textbook from the workbook. So the workbook would be used for an assignment for a given child, whereas the textbook would remain relevant for as many younger ones as would have access to that,” Elder Ubochi explained.
The Commissioner advised parents to pick the Basic Education certificates of their children, saying that schools should not charge more than N2,000 for collection of Primary 6 and Basic Education certificates while that of secondary school should not be more than 4,000 Naira.
