Abia Denies Favoritism Allegations In Ogbo Smart School Admissions

The Abia State Government has dismissed allegations of favouritism in the admission of pupils into the newly commissioned Ogbo Central Smart School, Ubakala, insisting that the process was transparent and that all pupils originally enrolled in the school retained their places.

Addressing journalists at the Government House, Umuahia, on the outcome of this week’s State Executive Council meeting held on Wednesday, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Basic and Secondary Education, Sir Kenechukwu Nwosu, described the allegations as unfounded, maintaining that no child was displaced during the transition to the Smart School.

He also explained that the Smart School project earlier initiated at the School Road Primary School premises was not abandoned but redesigned to accommodate a larger number of pupils following increased public interest.

“Because of the strategic location of that school and because we worked with data, and every time we realised that the response that we were having from the parents that were interested in that school became so much, and we needed to redesign the school to accommodate the growing population of that area.

“So what we designed initially, we had to re-strategise and make something that is now bigger, so that we can accommodate at least a minimum of about a thousand children from there, because at the time we started, it was about 300 students that we had in that school.

“This first school that we built was exactly to accommodate every child in that school to make sure that no child was left behind,” Nwosu explained.

Also speaking, the Commissioner for Information, Prince Okey Kanu, described the Ogbo Central School Smart School as one of the flagship projects of the Governor Alex Otti administration, noting that it was established to prepare Abia children for the future through technology-driven education.

“The Smart School is a flagship project of government. The school, for the sake of their classes, runs a smart infrastructure learning management system, and the school management software, library, teacher resource centre, and staff support offices.

“The facility is powered by a solar system with dedicated visual lighting and water management,” Kanu said.

Prince Kanu disclosed that every pupil from Primary One to Primary Six has been provided with a personal computer tablet to support learning throughout their stay in the school. He added that Governor Alex Otti and the Minister of Education interacted with pupils during the commissioning ceremony.

The Commissioner further announced that Governor Otti has directed the Commissioner for Works to immediately provide relief on the Ogbor Hill–Ovom Road leading to Ovom Mechanic Village to address the perennial flooding experienced on the route during the rainy season.

He explained that although the road is a federal road, the Governor approved the intervention because his administration does not discriminate between federal and state roads where the welfare of Abia residents is concerned.

On the allegation of preferential admission, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Publicity, Mr. Ferdinand Ekeoma, also dismissed the claims, stressing that the present administration has eliminated practices associated with political influence in admissions.

I can tell you that that allegation is false. It’s baseless. It’s unfounded. And I’m sure this government is old enough for people here to understand how this government operates.

“If there is one area that the government has been very intentional about restoring sanity, it is in the educational sector.

“You were all aware when you used to have what they call the governor’s list and all those things. Those things don’t exist again. There is no Governor’s list of admission into Law School or Medicine and the rest of them. So if we could do it in those special institutions, is it here that we would change the rule? So there’s nothing like that,” he stressed.