ABIA EDUCATION SECTOR: THE SUCCESS STORY

 
By Kingsley Maduforo
Education remains the most powerful empowerment tool within a community.Addressing the access to and improving the quality of education and providing a good learning environment will impact positively on our communities. To this end,Gov. Okezie Victor Ikpeazu is working assiduously hard to improve the standard of education in the state and he is proactive in providing Abia State qualitative education.
Investing in education is key and one of the main mechanisms for increasing productivity, employment, income and consequent competitiveness of an economy. Kudos to the Governor of Abia State,Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu for his proactive inclination to giving the masses qualitative education. Education remains the most powerful empowerment tool in any society. Addressing the issue of access to education, improving the quality of teaching and providing conducive environment for learning will impact positively on our society.
For the next two days, Abia educational system is going to receive a boost with the recent Abia State International Education Summit that’s kicking off today in Umuahia at International Conference Center, with the theme ” Reforming the education sector for 21st century “.The aim is to put in place a well define agenda in partnering with government agencies, international organizations, civil societies and private sector to improve the education sector in Abia State.
Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State upon assumption of office made education his priority especially as is manifest in the ‘Five Pillars’ of his administration. Although the unmet demands are huge, he has made huge investment as well in the education sector of the State to meet the equally huge demands. The Governor in this respect, christened the Friends of Abia School Adoption Initiative (FASAI) as one of his pet projects geared towards moving the educational sector of Abia State forward. This private sector-driven initiative is aimed at getting well-meaning individuals in and outside the State to give back to the communities and schools that moulded them. Such people are expected to adopt indigent pupils and/or volunteer to renovate dilapidated school infrastructure in order to make schools conducive for teaching and learning. When schools are revamped and upgraded, the effect on the entire school system will be enormous. Surely, this initiative is working perfectly well across the State and its benefits are many.
It is on record that the Governor is driving a two-pronged infrastructural revolution in the educational sector of Abia State – physical infrastructural revolution which deals with the renovation and upgrading of our schools’ physical structures, and stomach infrastructural revolution which is a free meal programme for pupils in public schools. Ten public schools from each of the 17 LGAs in the State are benefiting from both lanes of the programme. The Governor is not just renovating and upgrading the dilapidated structures in our public schools he is also engaging in human capacity building in order to meet the people’s immediate needs through his pet (FASAI) project.
Truly, investing in education has remarkably positive effects on the society. This requires effective collaborations and partnership. This is therefore a call on private investors to join hands with the present administration ably led by Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu to invest in the educational sector of Abia State so as to maximize its huge benefits.