‘Soludo’s Govt Breeding Technologically-skillful, Globally Competitive Children in Anambra – Prof. Ngozi Chuma-Udeh

Anambra state has continued to experience unprecedented growth, especially in the education sector under the leadership of Governor Chukwuma Soludo. In this exclusive interview with Anambra Daily, Commissioner for Education, Prof Ngozi Chuma-Udeh x-rays some of the exploits in her over 3-years scorecard.

How was the Ministry like when you took over and how is it at the moment?

We met a Ministry with lots of progress made and with lots of progress yet to be made. We can’t say those who were there before we came didn’t do well, because we were not wearing their shoes neither are we comparing with others because comparison is odious. But we met certain realities on ground – some of them harsh and some subtle. But we set off to amend where necessary.

Mr governor, on assumption of office, carried out a lot of revolution, including declaring state of emergency in education; a kind of revolution that has never been witnessed in the Sub-Saharan Africa. First, we met a bizarre situation of schools without teachers. The schools were ridden with the phenomenon of PTA teachers. PTA teachers meaning volunteer teaching as a result of lack of teachers. Parents contribute money to hire anyone who is interested. Normally, these teachers may not be qualified. These categories of teachers that have the chance and ready to sacrifice were the categories of teachers that filled our schools when the governor came on board.

First thing Mr governor did was to abolish that PTA teacher syndrome. Within the first 9 months, he recruited 8,115 teachers thereby abolishing completely that phenomenon of schools without teachers. He went further to touch the hard-to-reach areas where teachers find it difficult to stay. He made the schools conducive and accommodating for the qualified teachers from those areas to take up the task of teaching there.

Again, is the total infrastructural decay in the schools, especially what we call the public public schools, where kids learn sitting on the bare floor, roofs caving in and walls falling apart. Mr governor systematically upgraded the schools by reconstructing the schools. Examples are Urban Secondary School, Nkpor, Urban Girls Secondary School and Urban Boys, both in Fegge. All these schools he upgraded to smart schools. The same with Ado girls. In fact, almost all the public schools are undergoing reconstruction and renovation under this administration.

The aim is to ensure children of poorest of the poor get the best feel of education. When he was employing teachers, he said, for him, it’s the quality of teachers and the quality of teaching that makes and redefines a nation. For him also, touching the lives and bringing education to the door steps of the poorest of the poor is what he sees as progress. The weakest link is where he touched in education.

Mr governor also demonstrated that technology is the in thing. “Technology everywhere, everything technology” is his maxim. He decided to upgrade all the public schools to smart schools, which is being carried out in batches. The first batch, he took a school from each of the 21 local government areas in the state, plus one other – Uga Boys. In other words, we currently have 22 well equipped smart schools in the state. These are the first batch. The second batch with commence soonest. The intent of Mr governor is to ensure that every child in Anambra state is technologically, skillfully equipped, and educationally empowered to favorably compete here at home and be exportable abroad.

“The intent of Mr governor is to ensure that every child in Anambra state is technologically, skillfully equipped, and educationally empowered to favorably compete here at home and be exportable abroad.

Aside the smart schools, this administration did something that has never been done in Sub-Saharan Africa, except country like Burkina Faso which just declared free education or Australia. He gave what one may term a holistic free education. Before this administration, we had what I will refer to as a seeming free education; because it came with a retinue of dues – graduation dues, orientation dues, sports dues, a lot of dues. But Mr governor abolished all these dues, and gave a holistic free education. Holistic in the sense that he did not just declare the free education, he pays the school fees of evey single child in all the public schools in the state – from nursery to SS3. In other words, government is paying the fees back into the coffers of the schools.

Aside that, the headteachers and the Principals also receive monthly allowances or if you like allocations that will assist them carry out one duty or another. Before, the teachers were given as little as N20,000, some N10,000 depending on the school’s population. But that has completely changed. Mr governor has also improved their quality and continued upgrade of learning through seminars, conferences, symposiums, periodically organised for them. Those in the smart schools are being equiped and will continue to be equipped with knowledge on how to handle smart equipment in the classroom situation.

Some persons have argued that some certain fees are still being paid by pupils in the public schools. How true is this?

We have three categories of schools in Anambra state. We have the public schools, we have the public missions schools and then the private schools. This administration is paying school fees for the children in Public public schools. Some persons find it difficult to differentiate between the public schools and others. So if it’s a core public school, there are no fees; and if you see something, say something. In other words, if you see anything in the contrary, like extortion of any sort you let us know immediately, we’re not spirit or magicians. They’ll be summarily dealt with. We’ll systemically show them the way out of the system. We have examples, like the Principal of Metu Memorial who was demoted and transfered.

One expect the number of out-of-school children to drastically drop with the introduction of free education. Can you confirm that?

With the free education, Anambra is currently the state with the lowest out-of-school syndrome in Nigeria. In 2023, UNESCO put it at 2.7. in 2024, Education Information Management System (EMIS) came and put theirs at 0.025, that’s almost non existent. So we’re still waiting for this year’s to ascertain the current state.

So many laurels have been won by Anambra schools under the current administration. Can you enumerate some?

Since the inception of this administration, Anambra has been swimming in laurels brought in by the teachers, students and by schools themselves. At the President’s Annual Teachers award, we’ve brought back 5 vehicles since we came on board. This year’s own is spectacular. There are 15 categories of award, out of which Anambra won 9. In 2024, the best teacher in Nigeria came from Anambra state, a public school. This year, the award for the best school in Nigeria was won by Anambra – Woliwo 2, Onitsha, also a public school. Indeed, Anambra is synonymous with awards. Always on the lead.

You can’t have all these feats without challenges. What are some of these challenges?

Well, the challenges are like building blocks. You step on them to build. There are lots of challenges, but with intelligence and with humanistic nature of the governor, we excel over them. For example, when it was time to discuss the minimum wage, it would have caused a kind of ripples. But Mr governor in his true self as a teacher, graciously offered more than the minimum wage to the workers which teachers are part of. Anambra workers receive more than the stipulated minimum wage. Besides, these salaries come as at when due – on the 25th of every month.

What will the people of the state be expecting from the education sector in the next couple of years if Mr governor is reelected?

Anambra will be expecting a fully systematized smart educational sector because all the public schools will, by God’s grace, be raised to smart schools because the teachers is always Mr governor’s priority. He’s of the belief that a fulfilled teacher makes a fulfilled nation. We’ll also be expecting wonderful, conducive, educational infrastructures fit for children to study with. We’ll also be expecting wonderful achievements from children raised from the quality schools in the state. We’ll be expecting teachers who are synonymous with the word teaching. Of course, we’ll be expecting a smart mega city inhabited by smart mega people, trained in smart schools and governed by a smart governor.

Let’s I forget, Mr governor has touched the core of Anambra with his mammoth achievements in education. Education is Mr governor’s first constituency. And to tell you how deep he’s touched the hearts of the people, all the parents in the state converged together to form what they call the solution parents league. These are people whose children’s lives Mr governor has touched by placing education at the door steps of average child in the state. They’ve been organizing a 1million march for the governor in various major cities of the state in demonstration of their gratitude and to ensure he returns back to continue the good work he’s doing.