Enugu East Local Government Area chairman, Hon. Pastor Beloved-Dan Anike, says he will pay the West African School Certificate Examination, (WAEC), National Examination Council, (NECO) and National Board for Technical Education (NABTEB) examinations fees SS3 students across all public schools in the council .
He disclosed this at the council headquarters, Nkwo Nike, during a special meeting with the principals of the entire public secondary schools within his domain, stressing that his administration was also planning of making similar payments for Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) exam fees for the students when they are due for that,. He added that arrangements are also being made to pay extra lessons fees for these SS3 students in order to ensure that they are well prepared for the exams ahead. The school heads had come to submit the names of the SS3 students in their various schools to the chairman as they were directed earlier. According to them, over 2-thousand four hundred (2,400) students who would enroll for the certificate examinations the next academic session starting by January 2025 will benefit from the initiative.
Speaking to the press after meeting with the principals, the council chairman, Hon. Beloved-Dan stated that the exercise was part of his administration’s human capital development plan and equal access to quality education, which are in terndem with the vision of the Enugu State governor, Dr. Peter Mbah, aimed at raising a smart generation for global competitiveness.
In his words: “We know education is pivotal to taking people out of poverty and stopping hunger, if you are educated you will be prepared to have requisite skills and to make the right decisions to better your life. I’m not saying that certification is enough to get empowered, but beyond the certification it will enable you to acquire the right skill and turn your skill to business and business to money. So we have the vision of preparing our future leaders to become globally competitive, that’s why we are looking at human capital
Pix: Beloved -Dan Anike(m)
“You are aware that we just finished our ‘Better Tomorrow Scholarship Scheme’, through which we have selected 50 hyper intelligent students to be moved to highly rated schools where they will be able to gain the right exposure and the right environment to be able to become globally competitive.
This is in line with the vision of His Excellency the governor of Enugu Enugu State, which places education at the top burner, bringing smart school to every ward of the state. In order to also close the gap, we know as the most populous local council area in the state, we are looking at improving the human capital index of our youth, such that they become globally competitive and also contribute to the economy of the state as we scale up in the trajectory $30billion dollar mark.
The chairman explained that the exercise is targeting all residents of the local government, both indigenous and non-indigenous SS3 students in public schools, stressing that the intention is to ease the troubling load off the shoulders of the rural, the urban and the semi-urban poor, noting that the focus is on the social impacts.
Beloved-Dan also commended the governor of the state, Dr Peter Mbah, whom he said has already made the job easier for them, (the local government chairmen), through his huge investments in education across the 260 wards of the state, adding that the smart green schools being built in every community by the governor will bridge the inequality of access to quality education and not only boost confidence in public schools but would most likely crash the quest for quality education from the private schools
“The Smart Green schools in the 260 wards that are being established by our governor, Dr Peter Mbah, is actually targeted as measure to provide the opportunity for the poor and the provide more importantly an alternative school to what we call private schools, in fact by September 2025 everyone who operates a private school or luxury school in Enugu state will check the indices that makes a luxury school, because what the smart school would provide will have high ratings more than the those private schools/luxury schools.
“So it’s actually to help not just the poor but also the middle class. A whole lot of people who take their children to private schools are overburdened by the load of school fees, ranging from 50-thousand, to 100-thousand and 200-thousand, not to talk of the luxury schools that pay about 500-thousand and above.
“So the critical mass of the population including civil servants move our children to private schools, but by the time the smart schools fully take off by September next year, everybody will go public, it will be a repeat of those days when if you don’t have 36 or 30 aggregates to be in public school, you would know what you are missing. That’s why we are coming back to support the public schools and encourage everybody.
The council boss, accompanied by the secretary to the local government, who also doubles as the chairman of the implementation committee, Barr Uchenna Mbeke, also emphasized that the initiative has been captured into law and hopes to be sustained it as an annual exercise. ‘
The journey of many miles starts with a step. We have already made funds available for this initiative. We have passed the Human Capital Development Bye Law, that approved 25-million naira monthly for human capital development which amounts to 300-million annual estimates in that regard. So we would be spending around 50-60 million on this which should make it an annual event, hoping that even subsequent chairmen after me would sustain”, he said.
Responding, some of the school principals who were full of joy commended the chairman, Hon. Beloved-Dan, for bringing succour to the less privileged. “My name is Dr Agada Gregory, the principal of community secondary school, Ugwogo Nike.
“If you look at our faces you will see that we are so happy about this project which our dear mayor has introduced. It’s going to go a long way to bridging the gap between the rich and the poor, whereby those who have money go to the private schools. This path the mayor is taking, I bet you in the next two years, nobody will be thinking of sending their children to the private schools.
“This initiative will put an end to the issue of dropout due to lack of funds. We enjoin other local government chairmen to emulate this kind of gesture. On her part, Mrs Agbo, from Annunciation secondary school, Nkwo Nike, also expressed her joy and prayed for the chairman, “We are grateful for having this opportunity to interact with our precious Beloved-Dan, he is a good leader.
“We really appreciate what is happening today because poverty is a disease. That many of our children don’t go to school is not because they don’t want to, but because they don’t have the money, now that we have been given this opportunity, only the sky is our limit and God will strengthen our able chairman to do even more and I believe everyone will benefit, even the farmers in the villages may now want to enroll in schools. Our dear mayor, we love you, everyone loves you, ride on, May God strengthen you sir., she said.