Abia Government Increases Number of Public Schools from 117,000 to 300,000

The Governor of Abia State, Dr Alex Otti, says that public school enrolments in the state have skyrocketed from 117,000 last year to over 300,000 this January, tripling the number of school children in our public schools.

Otti stated this in Umuahia, the state capital, at the banquet hall of Government House, Umuahia during the January edition of his monthly media interaction tagged “Governor Otti Speaks to Abians”

Otti said that the positive results coming out from the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education concerning the increase in the enrolment is the kind of results he wants.

“That’s exactly the kind of result we expect. It’s good news. The recruitment of 4,000 additional teachers is on at the moment. We are paying a lot of attention to make sure that things move smoothly.

“We will continue with our push to make education available and affordable to every Nigerian living here. Reconstruction projects continue in different schools.

“The renovation, rebuilding, retrofitting of hostels, offices in the Abia State University, Abia State College of Education, Technical, Arochukwu, are still ongoing”

Otti, who noted that a lot of projects are getting to finishing stages, disclosed that his administration would be commission the Omenuko Bridge and the Abam – Okobo – Amuvi – Arochukwu road.

The State Chief Executive also announced that he would soon flag-off the reconstruction of the Uratta road and Old Express road to achieve the complete recovery of Aba.

The Governor further informed Abians that the government would be flagging off the Pocket Layout Housing Estate construction and other housing estate projects including, Mbaisii, Mgbarakuma, and another one in Ubakala.

Otti said that his government had signed a ground breaking partnership to digitally create and rate every hotel and hospitality facility in the State.

“In the next few months, all the hotels in the State will be accessed using the Global Positioning System, and verified criteria that is used to classify hotels, guest houses, and lodges.

“So, at the click of a button, you can see the hotels, get their rates, and then be ready to make your choice without necessarily visiting,” Otti stated.

In the area of science and technology, the Governor disclosed that the State is launching a pilot bio-gas programme at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike.

He informed the people that the whole idea is to turn waste into clean energy, to provide Abia with renewable energy from bio-gas.

 “This is a pilot programme, so, instead of the waste that we are disposing of, we can turn that with this technology into clean energy. We will be able to power a whole lot more places, particularly in the Umuahia ring fence,” he said.

The Governor reported that the “Project Ekwueme Phase 1 project which is 200 primary healthcare centres have been completed and many of them functionalised, while those that have not been functioning will be functioning soon. He informed the people that plans are in place to start the 2nd phase of the project Ekwueme initiative.

He added that, “We insist that before a primary health care centre is functionalized, it must have not just all the facilities and minimum standards that we have set up.

” We insist that before we open any primary healthcare centre, we must have healthcare professionals around those centres.

“We hired over 600 health care professionals recently and we are deploying them. Some of them have now resumed. As they resume, we will continue to functionalize more.

“We also have awarded the construction of a brand-new general hospital in Ndoki, Ukwa East. Just recently, a contractor took over the site,” the governor further revealed.

On the CKC Aba water project flagged off last year, Otti said that the project was almost completed and would be commissioned soon to supply water to parts of Aba, while the Ariaria area and other regional water schemes including that of Umuahia would soon be flagged-off.

The Governor added that all efforts are geared towards making available pipe borne water to every household in the State as was the case in the past and announced that the Water project at the Abia State College of Education, Technical, Arochukwu is ninety percent completed and would be made to supply water in other parts of Arochukwu.