Abia State Governor, Dr Alex Otti has stated that his administration would stop at nothing to develop the state more than where he met it on assumption of office.
Governor Otti stated this while interacting with journalists during this Month’s Edition of the Monthly Media Chart with Journalists tagged; “Governor Alex Otti Speaks To Abians”.
Gov Alex Otti
The Governor who insisted that all his government is doing is to leave Abia state better than he met it, said his administration has touched virtually on all critical sectors of the state including healthcare, Road Infrastructure, Economic Development, Agriculture among others initiatives.
He vowed that his administration will continue to identify with programmes and policies geared towards impacting positively on the lives of the people.
On Education, the Governor who outlined comprehensive plans to overhaul public schools, announced that his administration has started the bold initiative to reconstruct and retrofit 13 schools per Local Government Area, comprising ten primary schools and three secondary schools.
He emphasized that the effort is to elevate the standard of education by ensuring that schools meet minimum requirements, including the provision of libraries, laboratories, and teachers’ quarters.
“Very soon you will see massive work in schools around your locality. We believe that in the 21st century world, there are somethings that you should find in a school, like library, laboratory, teachers quarters principals’ or headmasters quarters, you know those minimum standards.
“We want our teachers to live with our students like it used to be in days past. By the time we are done with that, we are also looking very closely at the curricula and we have brought in a consultant that has quite some experience in education to support us and they have already come into the state”, Gov Otti informed.
The Governor noted that steps are being taken by the government to attract and retain qualified teachers through incentives such as increased retirement age of teachers from 60 – 65 years as well as the initiation of a “Discriminatory Compensation Package”, among other packages for teachers in the state.
“You knew what happened here in the past few years,Teachers were not paid promptly and some were not paid at all,so alot of trained teachers abandoned the classroom and sought transfer elsewhere.
“What we have done is to encourage them to go back to the classroom. We have done a few things to encourage them.Our policy is that we cannot force anyone, but we have a lot of sweeteners that will attract genuine teachers.
“One of those is that we have increased the retirement age for teachers from sixty to sixty-five. We have also started to work out compensation package for teachers. So by the time we are done, teaching will become very attractive. This is one of the things we are doing“, the Governor stated.
Governor Otti who used the opportunity to give a scorecard of his administration’s achievements in areas such as Healthcare Advancements, Infrastructure Development, Security and Job Creation, Payment of Pensioners Arrears among others, underscored his commitment to transform Abia State into a hub of excellence, prosperity, and sustainable development.
Chief of Staff to the Governor, pastor Caleb Ajagba and the Commissioner for Information and Culture, Prince Okey Kanu
