Abia Govt Plans Relocation Of Pupils Of Shut Down Private Schools To Public Schools

Abia Government has disclosed its plans to relocate pupils of the shut-down private schools in the State to nearby government schools.

Abia State Commissioner for Information and Culture Okey Kanu disclosed after the State Executive Council meeting at the Government House in Umuahia on Tuesday.

“The Ministry of Education is working assiduously to ensure that the pupils of the private schools that were shut down are relocated to nearby schools to continue with their education to ensure that they don’t lose necessary school time as it were. So that is ongoing while the other issues about the closed down schools meeting the guidelines of reopening are being worked upon,” he said.

According to him, ten JAMB CBT centres that were shut down have been reopened and more will equally be reopened in the New Year.

Kanu revealed that the state government was engaging world-class experts to drive the reforms in the education sector while model schools are currently being retrofitted in various LGAs in the State.

He also said the Abia State Government has embarked on a total of 26 road projects with six being construction while the other 20 roads were for maintenance and rehabilitations.

The commissioner equally informed that the government was getting ready for the accreditation of ABSUTH.

“ABSUTH is receiving very rare reviews across the board, from within and outside the State and the reasons are very simple; there has been a lot of upgrade in their facilities, they have new faculty members and of course, the general environment of ABSUTH is being improved upon and we believe that at the end of the day, the school will be reaccredited,” the commissioner added.

Buttressing the shutdown of some private schools in the State, the Commissioner for Education Uche Eme Uche said while the government appreciated private investors for filling the gap in education in the past, a lot of things were wrong with the private schools that were shut down,

“We as a government appreciate what the private proprietors have done in the past because when the government abandoned schools there was a lacuna and private investors took advantage of that but in the process, it was abused, places that were not even fit for poultry farms became schools,” he said.

“So, as a responsible government, in collaboration with professional bodies of private schools, we embarked on the inspection of all those schools and it was alarming.”