Abia Deploys Security Personnel to Schools, to Checkmate Crime, Other Unwholesome Activities

Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia

As Abia State public schools prepare to commence new school year on September 16, 2024, the government has made good its promise of deploying security personnel to guard the institutions and maintain adequate security.

Commissioner for Information, Prince Okey Kanu, made this known yesterday at a media briefing in Umuahia after the weekly meeting of the State Executive Council.

He stated the personnel of Abia State Vigilante Services (AVS) have already taken positions in the schools.

The Alex Otti administration had said that it inherited many anomalies in the schools, including destruction and stealing of school properties, land encroachments, and use of school premises for criminal activities by delinquent youths.

But Kanu said that government was determined to put an end to all the unwholesome activities in Abia schools hence the decision to checkmate the menace with security personnel.

“Posting security personnel is aimed at securing the lives and property of both the students, teachers and the property of the schools involved. The promise that the state government had made in the past has come to fulfilment with the posting of security personnel to our schools,” he said.

The information commissioner explained that safeguarding the schools was “part of the wider agenda of the state government to reform our education system.”

He gave assurance that the reformation of the school system is on course, saying that government “has concluded plans to train 2,000 master trainers for teachers in the state”.

According to him, 200 teachers have already passed through the training programme while the remaining 1,800 would soon undergo the same training.

He said the Abia State Basic Education Board(ASUBEB) has screened, interviewed and shortlisted 40 teachers for training under the Abia State School Enhancement Team Program, a quality assurance initiative  for monitoring performance in the school system.

Prince Kanu further stated that government was also keeping its promise to motivate teachers to higher productivity, adding that a total of 5,746 teachers at the basic school level have been earmarked for promotion.

In his remarks, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Education, Dr. Kenechukwu Nwosu, said that government was presently mapping out all the schools in line with their security needs assessment.

He explained that deployment of the AVS security personnel was not limited to only schools in Umuahia, the capital city, adding that fencing of schools was being considered as well.

“In this first phase, we are also expanding to Aba and to other parts of the state  as the Abia Vigilante Services continues to build required capacity,” Nwosu said.

On her part, the Chairman of ASUBEB, Lady Lydia Onuoha, said that government properly selected the teachers that would benefit from the training programmes organised in five centres across the 17 Abia local government areas.

She further threw more light on the Abia State School Enhancement Team, saying that it would be “the eye of the government in the schools to ensure adequate compliance to the plans of government in the schools”.