Education: Reps urge FG to include Abia as disadvantaged state

The House of Representatives on Thursday, urged the Federal Government to include Abia among educationally-disadvantaged states.

This was sequel to a motion by Rep. Solomon Adaelu (Abia-PDP) on “Call for inclusion of Abia in the list of Educationally-Disadvantaged States and to Establish a Conventional Tertiary Institution in the State.’’

Leading debate on the motion, the lawmaker argued that some states, including Adamawa, Bauchi, Cross River, Ebonyi, Rivers and Zamfara, were considered as educationally less-developed.

“As a result, their indigenes are usually given special consideration for admission into federal institutions of higher learning.

“The yardstick for declaring a state educationally disadvantaged include the absence of a federal institution in the state as well as the number of students from the state in federal institutions across the country.’’

Adaelu said that analysis of federal education infrastructure development in states classified as educationally-disadvantaged showed that Abia was worse than any of those states, “yet it is currently not listed as educationally-disadvantaged’’.

According to him, Michael Opara University of Agriculture, Umudike, established as a specialised tertiary institution is the only federal institution in Abia offering solely agriculture-related courses and has the entire country as “catchment area.’’

“The Federal Government’s guidelines for admissions into institutions of higher learning are based on 45 per cent merit, 35 per cent catchment and 25 per cent educationally-disadvantaged status.

“Concerned that there is no conventional federal institution of higher learning in Abia as a result of which Abians desirous of studying regular courses like Medicine, Law, Engineering among others, the state will remain educationally-disadvantaged.’’

The motion was unanimously adopted by members when it was put to a voice vote by the Speaker, Mr Yakubu Dogara.

The house therefore mandated its Committee on Tertiary Education and Services to liaise with the Federal Ministry of Education to establish a conventional tertiary institution in Abia to carter for the educational needs of the people.

The committee has eight weeks to report back.