From Henrietta Ashikodi , Umuahia
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has lauded Abia State Governor, Dr Alex Otti, for dedicating 20percent of the budget of the State to education, adding that his education policies have elevated the State.
The Head of Office and Country Representative of UNESCO to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Dr Jean-Paul Ngome-Abiaga gave the commendation on Tuesday, 10th, at the Governor’s office when he led a delegation to pay him a visit.
He revealed that the work he started since 2023, the result is showing
“I have been in this country for three months and a half, but I know the effort that were put in place here in terms of infrastructure development, but also in terms of fiscal discipline and also in education.
“I will speak only about education. Even though UNESCO is about education, science, culture, communication and information, we are doing so much.
“But, I would like to emphasize on that, Your Excellency, we know the importance and place of education in your agenda.
“We know that you have dedicated 20percent of the budget of the state to education and we would like to really congratulate you for that,’ he said.
Dr Ngome-Abiaga, who sought further partnership with Abia State Government in three areas including health, education, and giving more visibility in other areas that are in the mandate of UNESCO and the budget provision for health and education, adding that he came to support the works of the Governor, noting that he would put all their technical expertise to the Governor’s disposal in any area of need it.
“In terms of UNESCO support, we have been working very hard together with your people, with your institutions.
“We have trained more than 1,000 teachers on health and education. We have engaged more than 700 community and religious leaders to our health, education, and HIV education.
“We have engaged more than 300 schools. And all these started when you launched the Abia First Education Initiative. So, we would like to thank you for that and we would like to continue to support you in that very important agenda,” Dr Ngome-Abiaga assured.
Also speaking, the Chief Executive Officer of Sterling One Foundation and a strategic partner to the United Nations, Mrs Olapeju Ibekwe, introduced the Africa Social Impact Summit to the Governor and invited him to participate as a guest of honour to their forthcoming conference in July this year.
She noted that, “It is a platform for us to accelerate the SDGs and it seeks to reduce silo execution and catalyse multi-level, multi-sectoral partnerships across the public sector, private sector and the third sector.
“So, this platform birthed just after COVID-19 in 2022 and since then, it’s been able to unlock over 100 million Dollars because the platform has three main goals and the goals are partnerships, impact investment and policy advocacy,” Mrs Ibekwe noted.
In his response, the Governor appreciated their visit to the State, thanked them for being good partners to the State. He added that what they have requested are germane, assured that he would look into their requests.
“What you came with is a request that no one can say no to – partnership, support to reduce the number of out-of-school children, asking that more money be allocated to health, and education.
“Those are good and they are imperative for a government that is serious. And we can only say thank you and welcome.
The Governor announced that the Computer Based Test (CBT) would be conducted for the second batch of teachers’ recruitment exercise, by the State Government next week, for about 24,000 successful applicants who have been selected for the exams.
Dr Otti highlighted his achievements in education, particularly in the free and compulsory education, renovation of schools, recruitment of 5,394 teachers, training of teachers and providing special discriminatory remuneration of the teachers among others.
He reitereted that in the last 3 years , his government has devoted 20 percent of the budget to the education sector and 15 percent of the budget dedicated solely to the health.
“So, when you are talking about health and education, you probably see that they already have about 35 percent of the budget. But then, maybe by the time we begin to dissect them and break them into pieces, we’ll probably find out.
“We’ll go back and look at how we can further partner with you, how we can use you, like you have asked, for the good of our people. Because you are United Nations. You are not a profit-making organisation,” Gov. Otti stated.
The Commissioner for Basic Education, Elder Goodluck Ubochi, Commissioner for Arts, Culture and Creative Economy, Mr. Mathew Ekwuruibe, Commissioner for Sports, Sir Nwaobilor Ananaba, Commissioner for Science and Technology, Engr. David Kalu, Special Adviser to the Governor on Basic and Secondary Education, Sir Kenechukwu Nwosu, the ASUBEB Chairman, Lady Lydia Onuoha among other senior Government appointees were present during the visit.
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