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From Chijioke Agwu, Abakaliki
Onyiba Ajanwachuku was first Education Minister of independent Nigeria. He actually laid the foundation for the nation’s educational sector, including setting up the first three unity schools in Sokoto, Sokoto State, Warri, Delta State, and Okposi in Ebonyi State.
His son, Dr. Igwe Ajanwachuku, 40 years later, stepped into his father’s shoes as Minister of Education, under President Umaru Yar’Adua.
As expected, the foundational role of Ajanwachuku in the sector rubbed off positively on his home community, Okposi, in Ohaozara Local Government Area, Ebonyi State, with the high literacy level there.
However, the community might be living on its past glory when it comes to education, considering the level of infrastructural decay and rot in academics in many public schools there.
It is heartwarming that the issue has attracted the attention of a non-governmental organization, Okposi Education Initiative (OEI), which has come out to reverse the trend and ensure quality education for every student of the community. Accordingly, it has set out modalities to identify some of the most pressing infrastructural and academic challenges affecting all the secondary schools in Okposi, with a view to solving them.
Chairman of the OEI, Dr. Nnanna Agwu, who disclosed this while addressing the management and students of Government Secondary School, Okposi, recently, lamented that lack of basic necessities in many public schools in Okposi had adversely affected the intellectual growth of students of the community. Agwu, a medical practitioner, spoke when he led members of the team to distribute textbooks and other educational materials to students.
Stating that the group would no longer wait for government to provide all the necessary infrastructure for the schools in the community, he noted that they were already liaising with principals of all the public secondary schools in the area to identify their challenges and solve them.
He said: “In addition to rewarding brilliant and excellent students, we have also, in line with our determination to promote academic excellence in Okposi, started taking inventory of all the public schools in Okposi. We will look at their major problems and challenges and see what we can do to help each of them. This is a project we intend to take next year. We will work with the principals and management of the schools to do this.
“Okposi Education Initiative is a non-governmental and non-profit-oriented organization, but a community-based organization with the aim and objective to promote academic excellence in our community, Okposi.
“By the special grace of God, we have been doing this for the past 10 years. This is our 10th anniversary. Each year, we have our flagship programme, which we call Reward for Academic Excellence, in which we give textbooks, writing and other educational materials to the first, second and third students in each class of all the schools in Okposi.
“We also give award to the best students in agriculture, out of our desire to honour one of our founding members, Engr. Ukpa Nwankwo, who died a few days after the formation of the association, and also to help promote students’ interest in Agriculture,” he said.
A former chairman of OEI and public health expert, Dr. Laz Eze, said the group has rewarded over 1,200 students and distributed over 2,000 textbooks since its inception in 2011.
Addressing students of Ezi Okposi High School, Eze stated that he was happy that their efforts had been yielding the expected results. According to him, through the reward system of the group, many students from the community had sustained their brilliance to the university and came out in flying colours.
“We started this project in 2011. Some of us were still students in higher institutions while some were already graduates. I was a youth corps member at the time. Yet, we came together and said we must design something to encourage our students. We are happy with the results of our efforts in the last 10 years. We have seen some beneficiaries of our prizes doing better than they were doing before, while some sustained their brilliance even to the university level,” he said.
He assured the students that the group would continue to do everything within its power to continue to encourage them to do better in their academic pursuits, insisting that education remained the bedrock of a truly successful life.
“It’s our determination to continue to do our best to encourage you people. Because good education remains the bedrock of a successful life, even in business, if you are not educated, your business partners will always cheat you. In everything, try to be the best.”
When the train stopped at Isiokposi High School, Nwani Ngene, a banker, who addressed the students, urged them not to be discouraged by shortage of teachers in their schools. He recalled that during his time at Government Secondary School, Okposi, over 2,500 students were being taught by only eight teachers.
“It’s discouraging but we didn’t give up. Instead of being discouraged, we studied harder, came out with good grades, went to higher institutions and did very well, and today, we don’t regret it,” he said.
At least over 126 textbooks comprising New Intensive English, New General Mathematics and other educational materials were presented by the group to schools in Okposi during its 10th anniversary.
Principals of Government Secondary School, Okposi, Titus Ogbu; his counterparts at Okposi High School (Ogbonnaya Okoronkwo, and Mrs. Eunice Eze of Isi Okposi High School, in their separate remarks during visit to their schools, commended the OEI for its interest in promoting academic excellence in Okposi Community.
Okoronkwo described them as a noble organization with a lofty vision, adding that what the group has been doing in the community, especially in the area of promoting education, deserved commendation.
“It has been an annual ritual for this organization to go round schools in Okposi, both public and private ones, to encourage students who have done well in their previous classes. It is a noble organization with a noble mission of promoting education in Okposi. I commend them for taking this bold step to save education in Okposi,” he said.
Some of the beneficiaries, including Victor Anyigor of Goverment Secondary School Okposi and Udoko Chinedu of Isi Okposi High School, who were the best in SS3 class in their schools and who also won the Engr. Ukpa Nwankwo’s prize for agriculture, thanked the group for the prizes.
They promised on behalf of their colleagues to continue to study harder and to be of good conduct throughout their education.
