Abia to pass bill to punish parents whose children drop out of school 

The government of Abia State says it will send an executive bill on Education, which will make it a punishable offence for any parent in the state to deny their child or ward basic education.

The government also resolved to start running special secondary school for the deaf and mentally challenged.

The Abia State governor, Dr. Alex Otti announced these measures in his message during this Year’s Children’s Day event held at the Umuahia Township Stadium on Monday.

Otti, who apologized to children in Abia State for the inability of previous administrations to give them sound education due to bad leadership, bad governance, inability to pay regular salaries and pensions to their parents to pay school fees, asserted that dilapidated school buildings, shortage of qualified teachers and poor road networks, affected the education of children in Abia directly or indirectly.

“With 20 percent of this year’s budget allocated to education, the era of denying children education in Abia is all over. From now on, the story will be different. Before the end of this year, most schools in Abia would be renovated, experienced teachers posted to teach in schools,” he said.

“There are arrangements to equip science laboratories, libraries as well as provide quarters for teachers to live within school premises to ensure quality teaching and learning environment. Regular payment of salaries, allowances and other employments to teachers have been guaranteed by my government. Never again will Abia children be denied education.”

On the plight of the school for the blind and the Special School for the deaf and mentally challenged in the state, Otti promised to provide each of them with a bus, fence the premises of the school for the blind.

In an address he read on behalf his wife, Mrs Priscilla Otti, she vowed to tackle girl child school dropout in all its forms.

Priscilla, according to the address, promised to provide a number of materials to schools in Abia, including exercise books, First Aid Boxes and train those to man them.

Mrs. Otti further promised vocational skills acquisition for girls, as well as establishment of mass literacy centres in rural communities to encourage quality education in order to improve the society at large.

The Day was marked with traditional dances, march-past by school children, uniform organisations and distribution of prizes to winners.