Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State says his administration will give utmost attention to the education sector to maintain standard and ensure quality.
Fubara said this when he inaugurated the Governing Council of the Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, on Wednesday.
The governor stressed that in achieving legacy in the sector, schools would be driven with a curriculum that would equip school-aged children to become competitive, innovative and self-reliant.
He said it was regrettable that some people felt that his administration lacked focus, with no vision and direction.
“But I want to tell the world that we are focused and aware that we cannot grow if our energies are not channelled to education. Not just education, but purposeful education.
“Education that is creative, that gives you independence. We have left the era when people speak too much grammar. We are in such time when it is what you can do with your hands,” he said.
The governor said that the purpose of ensuring quality education was to return academic programmes to a standard where at the end of studies, graduates would create jobs for themselves.
“When one creates a job, you automatically employ others, that is what I want this council to see as their task,” he said.
Fubara said that the non-existence of public secondary schools for the male child in Diobu axis of Port Harcourt had left many primary school leavers out of school.
“Such negligence leaves children in that area who have completed primary education, and whose parents cannot afford to send them to far away secondary schools to roam the streets, and therefore, become willing tools for criminality,” he said.
He said that such fundamental problem would be addressed by his administration as a measure to curb the negative impression associated with Diobu axis of the state.
He expressed confidence in the capacity of members of the Governing Council to bring about positive change in the university while also contributing their quota to improving the general education standard in the state.
“I charge you, not just in terms of administering the affairs of the university, but add something different from the normal things we already see, “he stated.
In her response, retired Justice Mary Odili, the Pro-Chancellor of the school on behalf of other members, thanked the governor for finding them worthy to serve in such capacity.
Odili promised that the council would work assiduously as a team to solve the problems that agitated the mind of the governor and ensure their contributions form part of the legacy that would be bequeathed by his administration.
Other members of the governing council included the Chairman of the Governing Council, Mela Oforibika and Chukwuma Chinwo, Adata Bio-Briggs, Dr Jonathan Hart, Ngo Martins-Yellowe, Dr Nancy Nwankwo, Dr Igoni William-Park and Mr Ogbugbu Barisua.
