Let me begin this piece by simply stating that my government's commitment to delivering quality education for the good people of Anambra State is total. But I will only be committed to quality education.That is why I have decided that our state shall henceforth be speaking only of "acceptable global standards in education", instead of "minimum standards". By the same token, we are saying good bye to the low quality education that this state has suffered because of the takeover of our schools by government.The collapse of education in Anambra State is directly connected with the takeover of schools owned by the missionaries, Churches and voluntary organisations in 1970. That singular exercise signaled the disappearance of morality and the building of character from our school system.This can no longer be allowed to continue.May I at this juncture apologise to those whose schools were forcefully taken over. It was one of the biggest and costliest mistakes ever made by the government. We regret that due to the takeover, these schools have deteriorated in all aspects. Academic performance, infrastructure, and simple discipline were all lost. By returning the schools back to their owners, we returned to the point from where we turned into the wrong road.Recently, the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, pointed out how unreasonable it is for a nation to keep pumping money into an education system that delivers nothing close to what it was set up to deliver. Let me state her exact words: Ladies and gentlemen: "Our education system is broken and we cannot waste everybody's time investing money in a broken institution".'Not only do I concur with the Minister, I demonstrated my concurrence by the action I took recently: the return of schools to their owners.We are hopeful that by returning schools back to their owners, a progressive cleansing of that sector will begin. This is a demonstration of good faith and also of our determination to turn around the education sector, because of its crucial role as the bedrock of development. We must always ask ourselves where the rest of the world is going in all that we do pertaining to the lives of our people. Just recently, in Port Harcourt, the former Prime Minister of Britain, Mr. Gordon Brown, said that one of the major ingredients of prosperity is education. He went further to describe it as the biggest asset for providing skill for the future. The implication of this, ladies and gentlemen, is that society that deliberately allowsits educational institutions to fall into stupor is in serious trouble. The only remedy is to take serious, radical actions, even if they are unpopular in order to bring renewal and re-birth.Having the foregoing in mind, and after due consultations, we in Anambra decided to hand over all primary schools owned by the missionaries, except those in dispute, back to them. The exercise is not final, thus those with genuine cases of school not returned are advised to write to the Ministry of Education. In returning these schools, Government is expecting the type of dramatic improvement in discipline, academic performance and overall profile of the schools already handed over. But this handover must be understood not to mean abandonment of the schools.Government will continue to pay the salaries of teachers, but the new owners shall be in charge of the day-to-day running of the schools and general administration.I want to be on record to have said, again and again, that we are handing over these school because we want to see them return to what they used to be, as centres of academic excellence; as well as strongholds for character and citizenship development.Being mindful of the urgent need to turn around the education sector, and in-line with our commitment to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, the Government has made a special provision to distribute to the Churches, whose schools will be handed over to them today, the sum of Six Billion Naira (N6,000,000,000) in the next 15 months, and in pro rata basis (based on the number of schools each group owns. The money will be shared in four installments thus: a. First Installment - N1,750,000,000; b. Second Installment - N1,250,000,000; c. Third Installment - N1,250,000,000; d. Fourth Installment - N1,750,000,000.For the first installment, the Catholic Church with 453 schools will get N762, 259,615.38; the Anglican Church with 296 schools will get N498,076,923.07; Government-owned schools, 291 in number, will get N489,663,461.53This money will be released to the Churches once they submit their work plans in the next 30 days.We shall continue to work together with institutions that have the capacity to complement the efforts of Government for the good of our society.'Excerpts from the address by the Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi at the formal return of schools to their original owners on 21st of November, 2011.
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