GOVERNOR UZODIMMA EXPANDS ACCESS TO EDUCATION THROUGH REFORMS
Onwuasoanya FCC Jones, PhD.
The best way to guarantee the future of a people is by giving them unfettered access to quality education. If you want your people to be happy for a moment and shower praises on you, give them small handouts of money or foodstuffs. Definitely, they will be happy and praise you to high heavens, but when hunger sets in, they will forget that you gave them food at some point, and they will tell the world how irresponsible you have been. If you build roads for them, they will also be happy, but when they don’t have cars, or need for long transportation, they might say that you wasted their money on something that serves the elite.
Building roads is good, and making available food and money to the people is also good, but the greatest investment in the lives of a people is an investment in education. When quality education is accessible to both the poor and the wealthy in the society, you would have narrowed the gap between the elites and the masses. It is the surest way to communicate your intention of giving the children of poor people the power to enjoy the same life and opportunities that the children of the wealthy might think is exclusive to them.
Imo is probably, Nigeria’s most educationally advanced State. Data from across various institutions and agencies prove Imo’s love for education. Even with limited access, and apparent lack of the required political will to put the necessary measures in place to ensure fair access to education by every child and reduce the chances of extortion by private school proprietors, Imo’s children continue to top the charts in both performance and enrolments across the country.
A responsible government would not play to the gallery on issues that directly impact the future of its citizens, rather it would make conscientious efforts to entrench progressive and sustainable ideas that expand the opportunities available to its citizens, no matter their backgrounds. There couldn’t have been a better investment in our education sector than ensuring that access to qualitative education is expanded to both those in public and private schools.
The Shared Prosperity administration of His Excellency Distinguished Senator Hope Uzodimma, CON, has set the pace in educational reforms through policies that guarantee favorable and convenient educational pursuit by Imo children, notwithstanding, their economic or social backgrounds.
The current Commissioner for education in Imo State, Professor Bernard Thompson Ikegwuoha has brought his many years in educational leadership and management to bear in his position, by implementing, key visions of the governor in the educational sector.
To the credit of Governor Uzodimma, Imo State is one of the few States in the Federation where tuition is most affordable up to the tertiary level of education. Without much noise, the Shared Prosperity administration has sustained the favourable fees regime he inherited, while ensuring a radical transformation in our educational landscape.
Beyond the reforms in educational policy, the governor has also set in motion, the processes for the total overhaul of our educational infrastructure, as the Imo State Education Management Board has concluded its innovative reforms to ensure transparency in the award of contracts for construction and rehabilitation of classrooms across the State. Imo’s educational infrastructure shall, like other areas in our educational system, become a reference point for excellence across Nigeria.
IMO WINS!
Onwuasoanya FCC Jones, PhD. is the Special Adviser to the Governor of Imo State on Public Communication.