By Douglas Okoro
Abakaliki – Gov. Dave Umahi of Ebonyi says the state government is determined to promote qualitative education to greater heights to widen the horizon of students.
Umahi made this known in Abakaliki on Tuesday when he was inaugurating the distribution of assorted educational materials to senior secondary schools in the 13 local government areas of the state.
The governor represented by the state Commissioner for Education, Prof. John Eke said that the initiative was a demonstration of government’s commitment to the development of education sector.
Umahi described education as “pivotal for the socio-economic, political and cultural engineering of the people’’.
He said that the state government would do everything within its powers to upgrade critical infrastructure to enhance service delivery.
“Our desire is to build, enthrone and entrench a sound and solid educational system that will be the toast of all.
“Education is an important tool for socio-economic, political and cultural engineering of any nation or society and it must be given serious attention.
“No nation, either ancient or modern, has risen above its educational attainment.
“For us to rise above our present level and achieve the type of development that we all yearn for, we must address the problem of human and material infrastructure in education sector.
“We have developed and are still developing the capacity of our personnel through regular training and retraining to acquire modern skills in teaching.”
The governor said that the educational materials would enhance performance of teachers in providing quality education for the children.
“We have vowed to give the best and nothing but the best for our people.
“We will not relent until we are sure that our children in public schools are receiving the best in teaching and learning,” Umahi said.
He charged school administrators to ensure that the materials were timely distributed to the benefitting schools and judicious used.
“The materials must not be diverted for private use and ensure that they get to the benefitting schools very timely, ” he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that school diaries, attendance registers, chalks, boards, geography and laboratory equipment among others were inaugurated for distribution to senior secondary schools.
NAN also reports that the state government had on Feb. 7 inaugurated 20,000 school reading desks for public primary and junior secondary schools.