RAYMOND OZOJI reports
The Chairman Anambra State House of Assembly Committee on Education and member representing Aguata 1 state constituency in the current 8th legislature, Hon. Emmanuel Anayo Okpalaeke, has observed that the 30 new public primary schools approved recently for construction by the Soludo administration targets the poorest of the poor in the state.
Okpalaeke who made the observations while speaking exclusively to this journalist in his office at the assembly complex Awka, said Soludo has not only offered free education to Anambra citizens but has also taken education to the doorsteps of the rural populace in the hinterlands especially communities where primary schools do not exist at all.
The lawmaker noted that the governor's efforts in the education sector is unprecedented in the history of the state especially with the recruitment of 8,115 qualified teachers thereby addressing the perennial problems of schools without teachers. He recalled too that the governor declared free education from nursery to JS 3 and thereafter extended the free education policy to SS3, thereby making education totally free in all government-owned public schools in Anambra State.
Although the lawmaker pointed out that Governor Soludo pays salaries of teachers in public mission schools; the emphasis according to him, is on public-public schools (government-owned schools) where children of the poorest of the poor could access quality education without tears and too many exorbitant fees as evident in public-private schools.
He said initially a proposal for the construction of 20 new government-owned primary schools was made but Governor Soludo in his wisdom felt 20 would be inadequate considering its dire need; so he scaled it up to 30 new public schools in order to ensure that every community benefitted especially communities where none existed and to also change the narratives of public-public schools in the state.
He emphasized that just four days after his re-election, Governor Soludo approved 30 new public schools for Ndi-Anambra, adding that it is quite commendable because education, according to him, is a basic fundamental need that must be acquired for one to have a solid foundational beginning in life.
Okpalaeke further emphasized that apart from the 30 new approved schools for construction, the governor renovated over 170 schools last year and that the governor is bringing schools down to the villages especially in both the riverine and upland communities where government-owned public schools maybe lacking.
The House of Assembly Committee Chairman on Education maintained that even though the governor declared free education for Anambra people, the bone of contention is who are the actual beneficiaries of the policy?
Hence, the governor, according to him, decided to build more schools so that the poorest of the poor in the villages could also partake in the statewide free education programme, stressing that the 30 new schools building project would cost the governor a lot of money to realise and that each of the schools would have at least 3 buildings in it because the schools would be strategically situated in the remote areas to provide opportunities for children of the poorest of the poor to acquire quality and functional education without tears.
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