The Abia State Government has begun moves to settle the backlog of emoluments owed facilitators of the state’s Agency for Mass Literacy. Governor Okezie Ikpeazu disclosed this when he received the management of the National Mass Education Commission, Abuja, in his office in Umuahia, the state capital.
Governor Ikpeazu described mass literacy as one of the tools to drive both present and future development of the country if adequately financed and harnessed by all levels of government.
Arguing that the more educated people became, the easier it was to govern them, the governor called on the participants to pay more attention to their studies to justify government’s huge investments in the programme.
Ikpeazu, who noted with joy that in the past three years, candidates from the state had been posting impressive results at the West African Examinations Council, attributed the feat to hard work.
The governor said other areas of academic endeavour, where the state had emerged in flying colours included the Nigerian Law School and in Information Communications Technology among the polytechnics.
Ikpeazu, who is an educationist, used the forum to commend the Abia State University, Uturu and the Abia State Polytechnic, Aba, for producing such brilliant students.
He reiterated the determination of the administration to make life better for the people through quality infrastructure and service delivery, inspite of the lean resources available to the state.
In his earlier address, the Executive Secretary of the commission, Prof Abba Halilu, said that they were in the state on an advocacy visit.
Halilu noted that the commission was poised to achieve its mandate. Explaining that recent statistics made available to the commission indicated that the state was in the high echelon of literacy achievements in the country, he urged the governor to sustain the feat.
