BY PETER OKUTU

ABAKALIKI – EBONYI Ministry of Education, weekend, closed down over 17 illegal and substandard schools in Abakaliki and neighbouring areas.

The schools include Divine Favour Academy Abakaliki, Shekinah International Nursery school Abakaliki and Excel Secondary School Abakaliki.

Triumphant Nursery and Primary school Nkaliki, Divine Favour Academy Onuebonyi, Good Shepard Secondary school among others, were also closed down by the ministry’s monitoring team.

The schools were closed down for operating without necessary approvals by the ministry, operating with substandard structures/ facilities and over population.

Commissioner for Education, Ndusbuisi Chibueze Agbo, noted that the closure showed that government was determined to enhance the standard of education in the state through qualitative teaching.

He also directed the pupils and students of the affected schools to go home and inform their parents and guardians that the schools had been closed down for being substandard.

He, however, remarked that the schools would be considered for re-opening if they met the stipulated requirements and provide facilities which included adequate classrooms, laboratories and recreational facilities among others; for the students.

The proprietor of Divine Favour Academy Onuebonyi, Mr Joseph Ogbaga, was arrested for obstructing the activities of monitoring team, while Good Shepherd secondary school, owned by Mr Joseph Eze, brother to the Commissioner for Education in the state was equally closed.