Ohanaeze Ndigbo Urges Patronage Of Public Schools

Members of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo have called on Enugu State Government  to initiate a policy that will make it mandatory for all government officials to patronise public schools so as to restore public confidence in  public schools in the State.
They also urged the Governor Ugwuanyi led administration to review its teacher recruitment policy and consider the practice of annual recruitment of Teachers.
In a communique issued at the end of a one day Education Summit 2021 organised by members of Ohanaeze-Ndigbo Enugu State chapter held at Ohanaeze Secretariat Trans-Ekulu Enugu recently, they expressed deep concern over what they described as poor enrollment in public schools in the state.
Their words, “On the issue of teacher motivation, there is urgent need for immediate approval of the new minimum wage for primary school teachers in the State, which their secondary school counterparts are already enjoying.
“Government should also consider granting special incentives to teachers in the rural communities to motivate them to stay rather than seeking transfers to urban areas few months after posting”.
The Enugu State Government, they went on, should reconsider its approval policy for private schools and order the immediate closure of all sub-standard private schools in the State and offenders seriously sanctioned.
They also urged the Enugu State government to implement the child right law, which is already in place in the State, and effectively monitor its compliance and ensure prosecution of offenders.
While calling on government to, as a matter of urgency, consider the re-establishment of three Teacher Training Colleges in the State to increase the quality and effectiveness of primary school teachers; and also make the TTC certificate the minimum requirement for recruitment into the teaching service in the State, especially at the primary school level, they went on to recommend the convocation of stakeholders’ forum to raise an Education Fund for Basic Education in the State.

By: Canice Amadi, Enugu