Anambra State Governor, Willie Obiano says his vision is the achievement of wholesome education for every Anambra child including those with special needs, the visually impaired and the physically challenged.
Speaking through the Commissioner of Basic Education, Prof Kate Omenugha, on Wednesday, at ‘Meet the Media’, a forum for expository insight into his administration, the Governor reiterated that his administration’s policy on education emphasizes that no child will be left behind.
Obiano said his government has effected this policy by ensuring that every physically challenged school child in Anambra State enjoys free tuition.
In her words, “One of the things the Gov Obiano did was to give free tuition to all the physically challenged children in our schools. Even those in public mission schools like DMGS, CKC and others enjoy the same benefit.”
On a broader scale, Omenugha noted that the Obiano administration formulated a strategic objective to meet the learning needs of all students through the equitable distribution of resources, learning of life-long skills and ensuring that Anambra state is among the top three states with the lowest literacy rate in Nigeria.
According to the Commissioner, Obiano’s passion for skill acquisition and the vision to equip every school child with a skill as part of a scheme to prepare the children to compete effectively in the society informed the formation of the ‘one student one skill’ policy.
Prof Omenugha also mentioned that this policy was the driving force behind the revamping of technical schools in the state, adding that most of the courses in technical schools had been accredited by the National Board for Technical Education under the Obiano administration.
“The past administration laid the foundation for ICT but a lot more needed to done. Obiano took ICT a step further by ensuring that teachers are ICT compliant. It is worthy of note that 40% of our teachers became ICT compliant in 2014/15 academic year. More have joined them. At a time, ICT compliance became a prerequisite for the promotion of teachers, she further explained.
“It is the vision of the administration to provide laptops and android tablets to schools to ensure that children practice what they are taught effectively. The aim is to equip the school children with the requisite knowledge to compete effectively in the global digital community.
“The result of these policies manifested in the laurels won by our students at the world technovation challenge in Silicon Valley, USA, the Global school debate in Indonesia and cultural competition in Singapore, among others. Above all, we have made our school children believe more in themselves,” she said.
She further revealed that the government has enabled the schools and school children to have global competitiveness and through a set of shared values, the children have been taught to believe in their capacity and capability to impact positively on everyone they meet and everywhere they go.
“They have been taught to be solution providers and not part of the problem, to be role models worthy of emulation, to be the best in all they do, to make their families, themselves, their state, their nation and their God proud in all situations,” she concluded.
