Rivers Plans ‘One Laptop Per School Child’ In 2012

The Rivers State Government, has hinted of plans to provide laptops to school children in public schools next year.

Governor Chibuike Amaechi gave the hint during a special dinner hosted by the Nigerian Breweries Plc at the Rivers Investors Forum(RIVINFEST) which was organised by a group of private entrepreneurs recently in Port Harcourt.

Amaechi disclosed that, “beginning from next year, each child must go home with a laptop but any child that misplaces his or her own will replace it”.

He said the programme was geared at raising the ICT profile of the state which would be fast driven by school children on computer usage early in life.

Against this backdrop, he revealed that the government was equally working on laws to penalise parents who failed to send their children to school since the state had rolled out free education at both the primary and secondary schools levels.

The governor who harped on why his administration was investing hugely on education said, “if the rich don’t want to be beaten by the poor, then, they should provide opportunities for them”.

He maintained that education and job creation remained the sure paths of checking crime and social vices while assuring the readiness of the state government to partner with investors to transform the economy of the state.

Amaechi further stated that the administration was planning to exploit the abundant natural water resources in the state by establishing three new fish farms in Andoni, Opobo and Bonny in addition to the one billed for Buguma in Asari-Toru Local Government Area. These, he said, would check unemployment and at the same time raise the economy of the state.

Meanwhile, Governor Amaechi has debunked figures given by Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Malam Lamido Sanusi that the state had received about N1.5 trillion from federal allocation.

Rt Hon Amaechi said the figures were those received by the previous administration before his own and that all monies received by his administration had been judiciously utilized, “when you get the money, you sit down and change the course of history of your place”, he said adding that, “it is not also correct that we have recieved money from the recovered oil wells from Akwa-Ibom State”.