Soludo urges more funding for public schools to end poverty

Governor of Anambra State, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, has called on the federal government and other states to invest more in public education to provide quality basic education for the children of the poor.

He said this is the only way to break the cycle of poverty and improve the country’s development.

Soludo made this call on Tuesday when he visited the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mammam, SAN, in Abuja.

He explained that Anambra has four categories of schools: private, mission public, mission private, and public-public.

He said the public-public schools, which are owned and run by the state government, are the most neglected and underperforming in the education system.

He said these schools serve the children of the poorest of the poor, but they lack resources, teachers, and facilities.

He said his administration has identified 21 public-public schools in each local government area, totalling 420, and has decided to upgrade them.

He said Anambra is turning these schools into smart schools, where children from disadvantaged backgrounds can access quality education and escape poverty.

He expressed his worry that most of the academic excellence recorded by Anambra students come from private and missionary schools, which indicates the failure of public education in the state over time.

He said if Nigeria could fix education, everything else would work out well.

He also said Anambra has paid its counterpart funding for the past three years to boost education in the state.

The Minister of Education, Prof. Mamman, who received the Governor along with the Minister of State for Education, Dr Yusuf Sununu, commended Soludo for his efforts to transform the education sector in Anambra.

He assured him that the federal government would continue to support states and ensure that no child is left behind.

He said he hoped that other states would follow Anambra’s example, which has been producing positive results.

He said: “We will be looking up to you to serve as a model of what we want states to be in terms of meeting their obligations. If other states adopted the practises you are implementing, we wouldn’t be at this level.”