Education remains Abia’s biggest industry. Like information, education is power.
Quality education is becoming a scarce commodity in Nigeria. This is because of the continual decline in education standards.
This is evident in the quality of graduates produced by the nation’s institutions of higher learning.
When majority of the population have unhindered access to quality education, the tedious task of governance becomes easy. An uneducated individual is easy to manipulate, he is remembered mostly during periodic election just like we’re approaching another election year.
Because of his inability to read and write in a particular language especially English language, he is meant to believe that he can do little or nothing to change his fate. He blames his “chi” or others for the self-inflicted challenges facing him.
A survey conducted by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) shows that Nigeria is occupying an infamous position as the country with the highest number of out-of-school in the world. According to UNICEF, It increased from 10.5 million to 13.2 million.
Lack of access to education affects the nation’s economic growth. We are already reaping the fruits of that infamous position.
With a rich academic background, Uche Eleazar Ikonne, an erudite scholar and professor of optometry is fully aware of the dangers of lack of quality education.
The Abia State Peoples Democratic Party guber candidate is a product of public school and was educated at a period that can be described as the golden era of Nigeria’s education.
Having attained the pinnacle in his chosen vocation, Prof. Ikonne is poised to give back to Abians that same quality education he enjoyed.
He believes that one of the ways of fast tracking the development of the state is through quality education. And that’s why education and human capital development with a focus on improving life expectancy, per capita income and overall quality of lives is one of the 5 – point agenda of Prof. Ikonne.
“I want to emphasize quality education in terms of human capital development. What I mean is what education has to do with critical thinking for the youths.
“we will create an atmosphere of learning in an environment of technology. Some of them can get into artificial intelligence, robotic engineering, even youths at secondary school level”.
“My government will prioritize overall teachers welfare from primary schools, secondary school to territiary institutions in terms of salary payments, promotion and other emoluments and make research works the bedrock for new innovations and academic growth to produce the desired results. Having been in this clime and reaching my zenith as a Vice Chancellor in a citadel of learning, motivation is key in this sector”
Coming from the academia, that is what Prof. Uche Ikonne will do differently.
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