By Uzo Ugwunze
The Executive Chairman, Anambra State Universal Basic Education Board, ASUBEB, Dr. Vera Nkiru Nwadinobi has called for a stronger collaboration with community stakeholders of hard-to-reach areas in the State to promote enrollment of children, especially the migrant farmers’ children living in camps.
Dr. Nwadinobi made the call during a courtesy visit to Anambra East and West Local Government Education Authorities to inaugurate the elected representatives of School Based Management Committee, SBMC.
The Chairman was accompanied by the Board Secretary, Mrs Loveline Mgbemena; the Director, Social Mobilization Department, Mrs Amaka Ikedimma; the ASUBEB Liaison Officer/PRO, Chinenye Anyakora, and the SBMC Desk Officer, Ngozi Okoyeocha among others.
Delivering her keynote speech, the ASUBEB Chairman, Dr. Nwadinobi stated that the engagement was part of ASUBEB’s broader campaign to reduce the number of Out-Of-School Children in the hard to reach areas of the State and to enable these children benefit from Governor Soludo’s free education policy in the State.
Dr. Nwadinobi expressed concern over the high rate of organized truancy among the teachers posted in the hard-to-reach areas who hitherto presented themselves as indigenes of the areas only to abandon their duties when posted to the areas, thereby leaving the children to go back to farms or stay back in the camps.
She made it clear that these are still children of Anambra State who are meant to access the free and quality education provided by Mr. Governor, noting that basic education is a collective responsibility.
Dr. Nwadinobi appealed to religious and traditional leaders to support the campaign by sensitizing their communities on the value of education and report truancy cases to the Board for disciplinary actions on the erring teachers.
She commended the State Governor, Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo, CFR for his continued support to the basic education sector, stressing that basic education has received the highest budgetary allocation under his administration.
“The Governor’s interventions has led to significant achievements, including the construction and rehabilitation of blocks of classrooms, replacement of chalkboards with white and interactive boards, provision of core textbooks and exercise books, and provision of thousands of modern chairs and tables to Primary and Junior secondary schools in the State” she noted.
Continuing, Dr. Nwadinobi stated that School Based Management Committee, SBMC is a committee set up by the Federal government to oversee the day to day management of schools in their communities adding that the objectives of SBMC are to provide avenues for all stakeholders to participate actively in school governance through community civil society partnerships; to promote community interest in the school system by erecting schools they can handover to the government, as well as to facilitate and support disadvantaged children to be sent to special schools where they can be adequately educated to to become functional members of the society.
She stressed that SBMC is not a profit-oriented venture but an avenue to charitably contribute to the education of learners for optimal results.
Earlier, the Director, Social Mobilization Department, Mrs Amaka Ikedimma, in a paper presentation, outlined the composition of SBMC membership, the principle of its operations, roles and responsibilities of SBMC and the difference between PTA and SBMC.
In their separate remarks, the Mayor, Anambra East Council Area, Mr. Fidelis Nnazor Apollo, represented by his Deputy, Mrs Edith Ndife; the Chairman of the occasion at Anambra West, Mr Emmanuel Anija, who is also the President General of Umueze Anam and the Mayor of Anambra East, Mr. Ifeanyi Nweze, represented by Mr. Fidelis Ejimofor thanked the ASUBEB Chairman and her entourage for the visit and assured her that they will do their best to enhance enrollment of their children in schools.
Highpoints were the inauguration of elected members of the School Based Management Committee in the two Council Areas visited, mock news presentation and cultural dance.