Southeast launches drive to get kids back to school

…moves to get every child in Alaigbo back in school

Communities in the southeast region of Nigeria, known as the Ndi-Igbo are poised to experience a transformed education landscape as there are action plans in place for implementation to change the learning outcomes narratives in the region.

Education in the southeast has suffered severe setbacks as a result of the Indigenous People of Biafra’s (IPOB) threat, and the government’s failure to adequately fund the sector.

Alex Onyia, the chief executive officer at Educare, a leading of Software Company in Nigeria, announced via his official X handle, @winexviv that he had developed a 12-month education plan for Ndi-Igbo to upscale learning outcomes in the region, especially at the basic and secondary school levels.

“I have developed an education implementation action plan for Ndi’Igbo. We have 12 months to get every child in Alaigbo back in school. We will track our progress with this,” he stated.

Onyia expressed his desire to see the good citizens of Igboland champion the initiative for their communities.

“In every community in Alaigbo there is always at least one good person and in most cases many good persons. The good person(s) can champion it for his/her community,” he said.

According to the action plan for implementation, between October and November 2024, there will be a community awareness campaign to spread the initiative.

The responsible party to anchor this are community leaders and members, both those at home and abroad.

Onyia further explained that from October to December 2024, he will organise town hall meetings and designate community champions for education, to be anchored around community leaders, local church leaders, and town unions.

The action plan will conduct a community education assessment from November 2024 to January 2025; while the initiative will be raising funds and allocating resources for school fees, infrastructure, and learning materials between December 2024 and January 2025.

Between December 2024 and January 2025, the organiser said there will be the purchase and distribution of essential learning materials which will involve the community education champion team, donors, and the local community.

Early in 2025, he said the team will organise teacher training programmes to enhance education quality. Education experts in each community, teachers school administrators, he said are expected to be involved.

Besides, the software expert said he will launch a massive enrolment drive for out-of-school children between April and June 2025, and establish scholarship funds and membership programmes for sustained support from April to June.

The action plan will also submit progress reports and conduct a mid-year review to evaluate the initiative and make a final enrolment push to ensure all children are in school.

The Sultan of Software, as he is popularly called, disclosed that the implementation action plan will be drawn to a close with activities to celebrate community success and recognise the contributions of key supporters, and that will be in September 2025.