Ugwuanyi sets up committee to reform education in Enugu

• Imo plans overseas training, exchange programmes for teachers
• Enugu Assembly moves to ban posters at bus stops

Determined to reform education, Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, has set up a committee to investigate the condition of school facilities for possible upgrade.

Ugwuanyi said this in his address at Michael Okpara Square to mark the World Teachers’ Day, noting that government was conscious of the challenges of schools and was devising ways of tackling them.

Represented by the State Commissioner for Education, Prof. Uche Eze, Ugwuanyi, commended teachers’ role in the development of the nation, stressing that the celebration was observed first in 1993 in recognition of the priceless contribution of teachers to the development of humanity.

National President of the Nigerian Teachers Union (NUT), Comrade Michael Olukoya, represented by Dr. John Okey Joseph, thanked the state government for making education a top priority.

He appealed to government to review the retirement age of primary and secondary school teachers from 60 to 65 years, and their service years from 35 to 40 years, noting that such conditions had been granted to workers of different professions across the nation.

Meanwhile, the Imo State government has begun the process of sending teachers in primary and secondary schools overseas for training and re-training programmes.

Also, the state said that some teachers in the state may be swapped with some schools in the northern part of the country on an exchange programme.

The state governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha, said this during the World Teachers Day celebration, held at the Heroes Square, in Owerri.

Okorocha, who said that his administration would continue to improve on teachers’ welfare, noted that the state would continue to provide a conducive learning environment for teachers to succeed in their jobs as nation builders.

He promised to confirm the appointment of teachers employed under the part-time scheme (Youth- Must-Work Programme) to permanent employees of the state.

The state chairman of the NUT, Napoleon Emenike, urged government to employ and promote more teachers, adding that that the plight of retired primary school teachers, who have not been paid about 22 months pensions arrears, be addressed without delay.

Besides, the Enugu State House of Assembly has passed a motion to punish persons or organizations, who deface bus stops with posters and handbills in the Enugu capital and major towns in the state.

The House passed a motion on the matter on Tuesday, which becomes operational when approved by the state executive.

The member representing Nkanu East Constituency on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Paul Nnajifor, supported by thirteen others, moved the motion, urging the state government, through the Ministry of Environment, to ban members of the public from defacing bus stops with posters.

The motion also sought to enforce the Ministry of Environment through the Waste Management Authority, ESWAMA, Ministries of Gender Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, to clear bus stops and all roads in the metropolis of destitutes and hawkers, who, according to him, constitute nuisance in urban areas in the state capital.

It also asked the state government to direct the Ministry of Environment and agencies to monitor bus stops with a view to prosecuting offenders.

All the members spoke in favour of the motion before passing it, but not before the member representing Udi North (PDP), Johnbull Nwagu, raised objection that the House would be ridiculed should the order be flouted as it was the case in the past, when a similar motion was raised during the 5th Assembly.

The speaker, Edward Ubosi, (Enugu east, PDP) overruled Nwagu’s objection, saying that the import of the motion was to ensure the environmental cleanliness of the state and that the law would, this time, be obeyed.