Public education going into extinction in Imo?

From all indications, it does appear that public education, particularly at the basic and secondary levels, is going into extinction in Imo State under the leadership of Governor Hope Uzodimma. Governor Uzodimma has the unpleasant record of being the one and only governor in Nigeria yet to employ primary and secondary school teachers for the past five years.

Some other governors in the country who became governors long after Uzodimma had become one have all employed teachers to equip and boost public education in their various states. For instance, Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State employed over five thousand teachers for the public schools in the state within the first year of his administration after he became governor in 2022.

In Imo State, Governor Uzodimma has been in the saddle since January 2020, yet not a single teacher has been employed to mitigate the effects of the dearth of quality teachers in the state’s primary and secondary schools. His predecessors made some reasonable efforts to equip the public schools by employing teachers. For instance, Rochas Okorocha, even with all his abracadabra style of governance, employed teachers, and that was the last time teachers were recruited in the state.

Almost all the leadership of this country today at various levels is products of the public education system. Why then are they neglecting the public schools, especially in Imo State?

The common entrance examination is usually the aptitude test used to evaluate the performances of pupils seeking admission into public secondary schools. However, this important common entrance examination has not successfully taken place in Imo State for the past two years at least. This is September, which is usually the beginning of the new academic year, yet the examination that ordinarily was supposed to take place in July has not taken place in Imo State among all the 36 states in the country.

This writer also learnt that the results of last year’s common entrance examination are yet to be released for pupils who wrote the examination since last year for admission into public secondary schools. For Christ’s sake, what is the difficulty in setting simple examinations for pupils in primary schools who are seeking admissions to secondary schools?

What actually does the Imo State Ministry of Education, particularly the basic and secondary sections of the ministry, do? What do the staff of this ministry—directors, permanent secretary, and the commissioner—do in their offices? How can they fail in the simplest task of setting simple examinations for pupils in primary schools in the state?

If the task falls within the purview or jurisdiction of the Imo State Universal Basic Education Board (IMSUBEB), why has the board not performed this task? Why is the board without a substantive chairman nine months after the exit of the former chairman?

The decay of public education in the state gives impetus to the proliferation of substandard private schools in the state. Must every child be forced to seek admission in private school even if the parents can’t afford it? No responsible government will allow its public education to go into extinction in order to promote private entrepreneurs masquerading as proprietors of private schools.

The state government has ostensibly recruited about 5000 teachers since last year. Regrettably, the recruitment seems to have gone into voicemail and has been gathering dust at Government House even when public primary and secondary schools have been bereft of adequate teachers.

Recently, the Iowa State House of Assembly passed a motion to check unregistered private schools in the state. It’s a good motion, but how can they reign in unregistered private schools when public education is gradually going to extinction in the state? The decrepit infrastructure in public education is an eye-sore.

Governor Uzodimma may not be educationally inclined for certain reasons, but it behoves the staff of the ministry of education, particularly in the basic and secondary levels, to educate him on the imperative of sustaining, equipping, and fortifying public education. He has a retinue of aides as commissioners, special advisers, special assistants, and numerous others in the education sector, yet the state cannot organise a simple common entrance examination. What then are they doing?

It bears repeating: every child must not attend private schools. Empirically speaking, private schools are not better than public education if the government equips the public schools with qualified teachers and good infrastructure. After all, the teachers in the private schools are products of public education. Governor Uzodimma should not let public education in Imo go to extinction under his watch.

Maduako, writes from Owerri via [email protected]