By Maureen Ojinaka
Enugu – The Enugu State House of Assembly on Tuesday passed the Enugu State Agency for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-formal Education amendment bill.
The bill was unanimously passed by the house after its third reading.
The Speaker, Mr Edward Ubochi, explained that passage of the bill would bring education to the grassroots and make all citizens to become literate.
Ubochi commended the lawmakers for a job well done and called for full implementation of the bill upon assent by the state governor.
The Leader of the house, Mr Ikechukwu Ezeugwu, said the passage of the bill would boost quality of education as well as reduce poverty in the state.
Ezeugwu said that the agency had so much power, adding that this had made it not to report to anyone as regards carrying out its duties.
“It appears the power of this agency is so much, being that they do not report to anybody, but no matter how one is highly placed, there should be checks and balances so that things do not go out of hands,” he said.
Mr Matthew Ugwueze (PDP- Igboeze South Constituency), said that with the amendment of the bill, the programme would no longer be restricted to only two zones, Enugu and Nsukka.
Ugwueze said that additional four zones would be created to benefit from the programme due to increase in population.
The lawmaker listed the four zones added in the amendment bill to include Agbani, Obollo-afor, Udi and Awgu, adding that there was need to amend the bill because education was very important in everyone’s life.
He said that the amendment would also make the agency to report their activities to the state commissioner for Education for monitoring.
Mr Chukwuemeka Ogbuabor ( PDP- Isiuzo Constituency ), noted that the bill would go a long way to strengthen administrative and accountability in the management of the agency.