The Abia State government has commenced comprehensive transformation of tertiary education institutions to end years of neglect and reposition them to meet the challenges of modern teaching and learning.
The State Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Prof. Uche Emeh Uche explained that Governor Alex Otti is strategic in the reforms in the education sector, adding that, apart from the interventions in ABSU and Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu Polytechnic, the governor is also transforming the Abia State College of Education (Technical) Arochukwu (ASCETA).
According to her, “ASCETA was completely neglected, and despite all the investments of the federal government through TETFUND, that place was in ruins; government now wants to upgrade it and make it a world class institution .
“We are getting ready for accreditation because all the programmes lost accreditation. So by October, that institution will just face accreditation.
So the State government is doing all to upgrade that institution both facility and manpower.
“Government has installed 500kva transformer; the water project is ongoing; the fence that wasn’t there, that place is being fenced.”
The Governor had during an unscheduled visit to the Abia State University, ABSU, expressed shock at the unimaginable decrepit state of infrastructure at the school.
While apologizing to the students for the embarrassing state of affairs, Governor Otti promised to add a 5000 capacity hostel to the new faculties of Law and Agriculture he offered to build to facilitate the relocation of the Umuahia campus back to Uturu.
Otti underscored the urgency of the situation and assured that immediate action would be taken to address it.
The Governor said: “Thank God I came; I couldn’t have believed it. I just came to see things for myself. And I thought I should take you and the University management by surprise. I’m happy to see you, but I’m very unhappy with the state of the facilities. The conditions under which you live cannot allow you to do any academic work. For those of you who do well under these conditions, we must congratulate you”.
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The Governor stated that while the new hostel is being constructed, the University management should find an organized way and phased approach to making the current hostels habitable, even as he gave the Vice Chancellor a matching order to build a functional cafeteria for the students, noting that it is unhygienic and risky to have cooking stoves, kerosene, and pots in the hostels.
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Governor Otti also assured that the designs for the faculties and the students’ hostel have already been completed, and that work would start in the next one week, with a delivery timeline of four months.
He declared that essential amenities needed to make the academic community conducive for learning, such as power, potable water, among others, should be taken for granted even as he
‎‎ordered the immediate demolition of the University Staff Primary School and the erection of a new one.
