Abia Gets Special School For Deaf People

Abia Commissioner for Education, Rose Ndimele said that the state government has concluded plans to set up a special school for the deaf in 2010. Ndimele said this in Umuahia when executive officer of the Abia Council of the NUJ, led by the chairman, Mr. Hyacinth Okoli, paid her a courtesy visit.
She said that the school would be sited in Ntalakwu in Ikwuano Local Government Area, adding that the structures had been completed. The commissioner said the school was needed to give equal opportunities to “our sons and daughters who are physically challenged.”
Beside, Ndimele said that the ministry had initiated some measure to check the proliferation of illegal schools in the state. We have introduced a progamme called “name search to identify illegal schools and check the duplication of corporate name by schools,” she said.
She said the government’s tuition-free education programme was still in place and that the newly introduced development levy in primary and secondary schools was meant to aid the provision of basic facilities in the schools.
She said that the ministry was ready to collaborate with the NUJ in its effort to ensure adequate publicity for the state’s education policies and progammes.
Speaking, the NUJ chairman, Mr. s. Okoli described Ndimele’s appointment as well deserving because of her experience in the education sector.
Okoli, however bemoaned the prevailing laxity among students of public schools and attributed it to poor and ineffective monitoring by the ministry.
He stressed the need for the ministry to strengthen its monitoring unit and make it more effective to check indiscipline among the students.
Okoli who also urged the ministry to establish standard guidelines for the establishment of private schools which should also provide sporting facilities like football field and tennis court to promote sports development. He urged the commissioner to hold regular interactive sessions with the NUJ so as to forestall speculative reportage of the ministry’s policies and programmes.