Okaforagu Favour and Ejikeme Nmesoma have scored 369 and 362 respectively in the just concluded 2023 Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination.
They’re both students of Anglican Girls Secondary School Nnewi, Anambra State.
Citizens of the state who congratulated the duo have attributed their success to the quality of education in Anambra public schools which they traced back to the educational reforms of Peter Obi as Governor.
Mr. Peter Obi served as Governor of Anambra State from 2006 to 2014.
With the inauguration of his administration, Peter Obi began to strengthen and build institutional structures in the State, which had been variously crippled and non-existent.
In a new deal for the education sector – an area very dear to him — he steadily boosted administrative and management capacities complete with a magnificent edifice for State Universal Basic Education Board [ASUBEB].
Who would believe that barely four years before his tenure, schools in the State were shut for about one calendar year due to non-payment of basic salaries to teachers?
The Obi administration stabilized Basic Education in Anambra State with his singular and courageous decision to hand over the management of some schools in Anambra State to their initial proprietors.
The transition also went with operating grants to the missions in the sum of N6 billion spread over 15 months and subject to approval of their work plans.
Obi administration also donated buses, laboratory equipment, transformers and power generators, dispensary consumables, sports gear, computers and other ICT tools to schools in the State.
The momentous decision of the Obi administration to hand over schools to their initial proprietors was widely acclaimed nationally and internationally.
Today, among others, Anambra State is adjudged the best in improved school infrastructure in Nigeria. In addition, a World Bank study supervised by Professor Paul Collier of Oxford University, UK recommended the Anambra Model for the rest of Africa and other developing countries.
Tertiary education was also part of Peter Obi’s new deal for education – receiving boosts in structures, facilities, faculty, welfare, accreditation, and improved funding. Benefitting institutions included: Anambra State University [and its various Campuses and Teaching Hospital]; School of Agriculture, Mgbakwu [with laboratories, hostels, classrooms, administration and staff offices and demonstration farms]; School of Nursing & Midwifery, Nkpor; and College of Health Technology, Obosi, Nwafor Orizu College of Education, Nsugbe, among others.
In a bold measure to promote reading culture among literate residents and expand research resources in the State, the Obi administration constructed a Central Library in Awka named after renowned educationist, Professor Kenneth Dike.
