Cross River sacks 12 school principals for ‘collecting illegal levies’

The Cross River government has sacked 12 secondary school principals for allegedly collecting illegal levies from students in the state.

Godwin Amanke, the state commissioner for quality education, broke the news at a briefing in Calabar, on Tuesday.

Amanke said six others were suspended for similar offences while 16 have been transferred to different areas.

“We have given a lot of queries. Twelve principals were removed, six suspended and 16 were transferred,” he said.

The commissioner said some of the affected principals paid N300,000 to secure transfer to other schools.

He also highlighted efforts by the government to revamp education in the state.

Amanke said the state government has deployed officials across secondary schools to tackle the menace of cultism.

He added that the state ministry of education has completed the N11.5 billion teachers training institute in Biased LGA while dilapidated schools were under rehabilitation.

The commissioner added that efforts were ongoing to employ 1,000 teachers across public schools in the state.

The development comes as the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) announced it has concluded arrangements to train 12,000 primary school teachers.

Stephen Odey, executive chairman of SUBEB in the state, said the training would keep teachers abreast of emerging trends in the basic education sector.

“The training will be decentralised to enhance participation of teachers in all nooks and crannies of the state,” he said.

“The training will be conducted by high-level facilitators and members of the academia.”