Policy Briefs

Chiagozie Udeh, Izuchukwu J. Okoye & Oseloka H. Obaze
  

Keywords: Education. Anambra State. Millennium Development Goals. Peter Obi. Policy. ICT.
ABSTRACT: This policy brief and educational assessment paper explores the policy trajectory and developmental strategies that turned the dysfunctional educational system in Anambra State around, within a six-year period during the Peter Obi administration. Education and the educational system in south east Nigeria, which included Anambra State, suffered immeasurably after the State Government took over Primary and Secondary Schools in 1970. The blight that followed affected curriculum, infrastructure, funding and moral. Academic standard fell across board and in Anambra State schools were shuttered for one calendar year. On becoming the Governor of Anambra State in 2006, Peter Ob made the revitalization of education a cardinal governance mandate. He used the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and his home grown strategy, the Anambra Integrated Development Strategy (ANIDS), as special purpose vehicle and template for revitalizing education. In a space of six years, Anambra State had gone from its 26th national ranking to 1st in the NECO and WAEC national examinations. This study looks at various methodologies and strategies used to achieve the turnaround. The study concluded that good leadership, credibility of leadership, personal style and introspective approach to policy articulation, management and implementation, played pivotal role in the success of the ‘Peter Obi Education Model’.

Introduction

1. One monumental infrastructural and developmental achievement is the rise of the United Arab Emirates, particularly Dubai, from desert grist to a great Megalopolis. That unique development experience has been attributed to good and credible leadership. “Good leadership puts the interest of the community as a whole before those of any specific group. Credibility of leadership can only be established through action and not words.” The forgoing observations are intended to put into context, the sort of leadership impetus that drives concerted development strides anywhere, beyond dreams and vision. That impetus is good leadership and credibility. Their dual presence guarantees societal developmental progress. Their absence secures developmental retrogression. 

2. Since Nigeria’s return to democratic governance in 1999, its developmental progress has been halting at all governance levels. Perhaps, nowhere is this most keenly felt, than in the areas of infrastructural decay, epileptic power supply and falling standards of education. These failings have been attributed to absence of good governance. Yet, there have been a few notable pockets of excellence and other sectoral accomplishments by State governments.  

3. Anambra State in southeast Nigeria, the subject of this report, has a population of 4.7 million people, and undisputed reserve of entrepreneurs and vast investment potential. The present Anambra State, which came into existence on 27 August, 1991, was carved out of the old Anambra, which was created in 1976. The literacy rate in Anambra State is high. The number of students enrolled in Anambra State Early Education Centres (EDC) in 2010 was 131,363. The State institutional census revealed that there were 1,041 Primary and 249 Secondary Schools. During the review period covered in this report (2006-2014), enrollment in Anambra State schools was one of the highest in Nigeria, despite the corresponding high rate of out of school children in Nigeria. During the same period, Anambra had 731,141 students enrolled in Primary Schools and 193,891 in Junior Secondary School (JSS). Enrollment in the Senior Secondary Schools was correspondingly high. Following the Nigerian civil war years, Anambra States educational system like that of many States was in dire crisis, but that changed remarkably, during Governor Peter Obi’s administration, from 2006 to 2014. This paper explores the policy trajectory and developmental strategies that turned the dysfunctional educational system in Anambra State around within a six-year period. 

4. The rut in the educational sector in Nigeria was pervasive, especially in post-civil war Nigeria. The challenges, which included underfunding and poor curriculum definition, were further compounded by the expropriation of all Primary and Secondary schools by the East Central State Government in the early 1970s. Under Military rule in Nigeria, the educational system had suffered a severe reverse. Inevitably, Anambra State inherited the educational deficits prevalent in Nigeria. The educational system was in dire straits and rudderless. The most deleterious of the worsening conditions was experienced in Anambra State under Governor Chiwoke Mbadinuju’s administration (1999-2003), when Primary and Secondary schools were closed for one calendar year due to non-payment of basic salaries to teachers.  

5. Conscious that holistic development has a critical link to education, Gov. Peter Obi, who was sworn into office on 17 March 2006, made education one of the cardinal pillars of his administration. It is on record that “before Governor Obi’s administration, the education sector was in a terrible situation. School buildings were dilapidated and pupils studied under squalid conditions.” Grasping the dismal circumstances bedeviling the education sector and the articulation of concrete ameliorative measures, required an introspective evaluation. Official records reveal that “before Governor Peter Obi’s Administration, not one single public secondary school in the State had a properly equipped functional science laboratory. The scenario was no better in the area of computer literacy: in this age of information technology, computers were virtually unheard of in public schools. ”

6. A conjunction of circumstances presented to the benefit of Anambra. In 2000 the United Nations had launched a good governance template, the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) with eight measurable targets, which inter-alia included the eradication of poverty and hunger and achieving universal primary education. Furthermore, when Governor Obi assumed office in 2006, it was discovered that “there was no single public primary school classroom block that was not leaking; none without cracked walls, so much so that many of them constituted death traps to school children and teacher alike.” Both circumstances called for governmental action. Believing that pursuing the MDG goals would guarantee Anambra State a basis for an encompassing development and revive the education sector, Gov. Obi decided to domesticate the MDGs, via a homegrown mechanism. “The strategy for achieving this was christened Anambra Integrated Development Strategy (ANIDS), which was a process of planning, budgeting, and implementation of all sectors of the Millennium Development Goals simultaneously.”

The Turn Around Juncture

7. To turn around the education sector, Gov. Peter Obi had to devise an introspective approach and a holistic strategy that would impact on all developmental sectors. Invariably, revitalizing the educational infrastructure and the promotion of student and staff welfare became the main focus, while modalities for reverting Anambra schools back to its original owners were contemplated. 

8. Four critical developments can be adduced as contributing to the turnaround of the education sector in Anambra. First, Governor Obi announced his vision and commitment for Anambra state “to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 as stipulated by all the 192 United Nations member states and at least 23 international agencies (sic), using our internally designed strategy, the Anambra Integrated Development Strategy.”

9. Second, Governor Obi tagged the 2008 Anambra State Budget the “Budget of Integrated Development”. The focus-value of the budget was that it was essentially results-based, having shifted from “being supply-driven to being demand-driven”. To anchor this new approach, and mindful of the negative impact of prevailing poor revenue base in Anambra; the attendant shortfall in funding, and budgetary gaps in non-regenerative sectors, Obi’s administration commenced a robust search for international development partners willing to fund education and other social welfare projects. Gov. Obi was keenly aware that education in Nigeria was grossly underfunded at all levels, and well below the 26% minimum of national budget for education recommended by the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). On the average, Nigeria allocated only 8.28% to education between 1999 and 2013; the lowest being 4.4% in 1999 and the highest being 10.21% in 2013. Finding such partners was not difficult; the challenge was meeting the extant threshold for development assistance and passing the litmus test of transparency, accountability and faithful use of donor funds for specified projects. There is ample evidence that Gov. Obi achieved these benchmarks, through his reputation for frugality, and by being directly engaged with development partners from the inception of any educational project, through its implementation and delivery phases. Accordingly, direct engagement with development interlocutors were regular as were exchange of visits between them and the Governor.

10. Third, Anambra State under Gov. Obi became the first State in Nigeria to formalize the Fourth Tier of government, at the municipal and township levels. By formalizing Town Unions in the 177 communities of Anambra State, each with its own President-General (de facto Mayor), each town was positioned to make critical policy inputs and needs-based development demands. A resulting positive corollary, was the commitment by government that in its simultaneous development programmes, no community will be left behind.    

11. Fourth, against robust protestations and push back, especially from the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), on 1 January 2009, Governor Obi announced the handover of 18 expropriated parochial Secondary Schools to its original owners, mainly the Catholic and Anglican missions, “as part of the State Government’s determination to strengthen its partnership with non-governmental organizations.” To complete the handover process, in November 2011, Gov. Obi announced the handover of “a total of 1,040 Primary Schools back to their original owners, the churches, and gave them N6 billion to maintain the schools.” This unprecedented move, which came four decades after the expropriation, was further underpinned by the promise to fund the rehabilitation of the schools, until they are returned to their standards, when they were taken over. This unparalleled policy decision risked challenge and litigation. more so since it essentially violated the doctrine of separation of church and state. Indeed, the NUT immediately “faulted the state government’s action on the ground that the teachers were not consulted on such a sensitive state policy on education, adding that it negated the Nigeria labour laws on the transfer of services of employees from one employer to another without the employees’ consent.”

12. Though the school handover was widely applauded, soon after it became contentious even amongst the benefactors of the policy, as some private schools were said to have been inadvertently returned to Missions that were not the rightful owners. Claims and counter claims between Anglican and Catholic owners of schools, prompted the Anambra State Government to establish in the latter part of 2011, a committee chaired by Hon. Justice Godwin Ononiba (rtd) to reconcile such claims. The Committee was also charged to determine the rightful owners of schools whose handover had been delayed since rightful ownership could not be determined from the onset. Despite the distractive pushback, Governor Obi took the position that neither the law nor the Constitution could justifiably stand against proper restitution, where there is proven harm; and that his policy decision to hand back the schools was essentially in the public interest. During the formal handover, Obi reassured the Anambra population and development partners of the government’s good intentions. Underlining that “The collapse of education in Anambra State is directly connected with the takeover of schools owned by the missionaries, churches and voluntary organizations in 1970″, Gov. Obi declared:

 We are not abandoning these schools, in the name of handing them over, because the State Government will continue to pay the salaries of all their academic and non-academic staff; while the Missions will be in charge of the day-to-day running and general administration of the schools. This is the subsisting practice in the schools already taken over by the Government. I want to be on record to have said, again and again, that we are handing over these school because we want to see them return to what they used to be, as centres of academic excellence; as well as strongholds for character and citizenship development. Being mindful of the urgent need to turn around the education sector, and in line with our commitment to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, the State Government has made special financial provisions to ensure that the churches do not have any initial problems in managing the schools. We have made available the sum of Six Billion Naira (6,000,000,000.00), which shall be distributed to the new owners of these schools over the next 15 months, based on the number of schools each group owns.

13. The Anambra State Government handover decision, which as a singular policy led to educational renaissance in the State, drew commendation from various quarters and soon became a model for other Nigeria States. Nigeria’s Minister of State for Education, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, urged other Nigerian States to emulate the Anambra State example. As he opined, “The handover of schools by the Anambra State government is a step in the right direction and one that will boost education in the state.” Likewise, Archbishop Valerian M. Okeke, the Catholic Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Onitsha Ecclesiastical Province, who spoke on behalf of Catholic bishops, characterized Gov. Obi handing back schools to their owners, as “One of the most popular decisions ever taken in the State…You have written your name in gold and you have wiped the tears of our people. You have rectified the anomalies of the civil war and rectified the fault of past leaders. With this action the Church has forgiven them for forcefully taking our schools.” Not long after, Governor Obi’s strategies for development, especially his education revamp policy and other policies, drew national and international attention. In testimony, Anambra’s educational development brand – the so-called Peter Obi Model – received broad acclaim to wit: “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. On his part, renowned cleric, educationist and Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Most Revd. Dr. Matthew Hassan Kukah, urged the Nigerian Governments at all tiers to emulate what he termed the ‘Peter Obi Education Model.’”

Concrete Results of Policy Coherence and Coordination

 14. By the mid-term of Gov. Obi’s second tenure, when the focus shifted to finishing strong and leaving a good legacy, Anambra State had become an exemplar and the destination of choice for development partners as well as foreign and domestic investors. The State’s education policies were already yielding positive results, with the State’s ranking in national high school examinations, NECO and WAEC moving most discernibly from the 26th position to 3rd and eventually, 1st in both categories by 2013. 

15. The Oxford Business Group 2012 Nigeria Report evaluated Anambra State thus:

In keeping with ANIDS, Obi’s administration has made improvements in the provisions of public education and health care a key priority within the plans of the state’s economic development. Since 2008, the approach has been based on short term interventions, by equipping educational institutions, with ICT infrastructure, science laboratories, school buses, water and power supply… Buildings have been renovated with a focus on improving safety and basic comfort, for students and teachers. This has involved the provision of water boreholes, toilets, and sanitation facilities, computers and electricity generators in schools.

16. Midway through Obi’s second tenure, in 2012, projected infrastructural development across the State in the education sector was huge. Of the 4000 envisaged new classrooms, 1000 had been completed with 1000 more slated to commence at the end of that year. Aside from the infrastructural development and remediation undertaken, it seemed perhaps, that it was the regulatory and operational policies adopted by the Obi Government that made all the difference. As the Oxford Business Group report further disclosed, “the State Government has entirely withdrawn from managing schools. In earlier years Primary and Secondary Schools established and run by missionary owners had been taken over by the State Government. Obi reversed this and now, with the schools returned to the supervision of the missionary bodies, has committed to limiting his administration’s role to paying salaries of teachers as well as providing budgetary support to the running of the schools. A total of N10bn (($64m) has been allocated in 2012 budget for the purpose.” The manifested result was almost instant. In the succeeding months, Anambra State topped the 2013 West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). “Official WAEC result, made available to the press (yesterday), showed that Ghana came first among West African countries while Anambra State came first among States in Nigeria followed by Abia, Rivers and Lagos States.”

17. As the Obi administration entered its final year in office, it pursued its policy linked to achieving the MDGs with greater vigour. No area was more vibrant than the education sector. In mid-2013, Gov. Obi announced that Anambra State Government intended to spend over N40 billion in the final push to accelerate the MDGs, noting that public funds should be used for public good. On 16 September, 2013, six months to the end of his tenure, Gov. Peter Obi presented cheques to mission primary schools aimed supporting accelerated education more robustly, while pushing the final phase of the MDGs, ahead of the 2015 target date. As Oseloka H. Obaze the then Secretary to the Anambra State Government remarked during that event, “The final push was a product of ANSG’s systematic planning, coherence and coordination, and proactive policy implementation.” Clearly, Anambra State development policies including education were fully in sync with the MDGs target date. Like the international community, Anambra State under Peter Obi was already looking proactively at the post-2015 scenario and articulating the platform for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

18. During another event in November 2013, the Anambra State Education Commissioner, Dr. Uju Okeke said: “The Governor had continued to exhibit and sustain enormous political will by investing substantial funds and resources to improve the standards of education in schools in spite of challenges resulting from neglect by previous administrations.” A partner of the State in ICT development, Mr. Gerald Ilukwe, also disclosed that “Governor Obi’s administration was the first to computerize one hundred schools with Internet facilities, which he noted no state in the country and West Africa has equaled.” Indeed, over a couple of months in 2013, Anambra State had in a carefully orchestrated series of events showcased as part of its ‘Final Push’, plan its commitment to implement fully, its package on accelerating progress in the attainment of education for all. At one point, Gov. Obi had publicly distributed cheques to educational institutions or missions, cumulatively valued at over N5.7billion, targeted at turnaround renovation and rehabilitation of dilapidated buildings and construction of the new ones in the Anambra State Primary Schools and Junior Secondary schools. During one singular event, cheques were presented to 420 Secondary Schools for the provision of science laboratory equipment and library development.

19. The various educational support disbursements by Anambra State Government had been possible due to the robust and constructive collaboration between the Anambra State Government and its development partners, including World Bank, DFID, EU, UNDP, UNICEF and others. Anambra under Gov. Obi had benefited immensely and improved qualitative programme output with the assistance of UK DFID’s State Partnership for Accountability, Responsiveness and Capability (SPARC) initiative. It is also noteworthy that it was during Obi’s administration that Anambra, Ekiti and Bauchi States were picked on merit and record of accountability, as the pilot states for implementing the World Bank’s State Education Programme Investment Project (SEPIP), which supports need-based teacher deployment; measurement of student learning in participating States; and school level management and accountability. In tribute to such seamless collaboration between Anambra State and its development partners, Gov. Obi while presenting his last budget to the Anambra State House of Assembly on 12 November, 2013, declared, “No state in Nigeria can talk about international partnership better than Anambra State.”

20.   In the first quarter of 2014, which was also the last quarter of the Obi Administration, information retrieved from Government’s archival records complete with photographic evidence, revealed that over 500 schools had benefitted from the laboratory rehabilitation and equipment programme of the government. More than 450 schools had been supplied with computer sets…Microsoft Academies had been established in almost all secondary schools in the state…and school buses had been provided for more than 600 secondary schools including government and privately owned secondary schools.”

Obi’s Leadership Style and Personal Touch Pays off

21.    Government’s role in many spheres of human and societal endeavours is that of a regulator. Education is not spared this directing oversight. If the educational system in Anambra State since the return to civilian democracy in 1999 to the tenure of Peter Obi (2006-2014) is measured on a sliding scale, it would show a positive shift from “weak” in 1999 to “very strong” in 2014. Hence, the overall rating and outlook will be described rightly as “robustly progressive.” Any observer would be right in asking; what factor was singularly responsible for such positive developments?   

22.  First, Gov. Obi appointed core professional educationists to run the Ministry of Education, the State Universal Basic Education Board [ASUBEB] and the Primary and Post-Secondary Schools Commission (PPSSC). The three lead persons, Dr. Uju Okeke, Mr. Nzemeka Olisah, and Mrs Joy Ulasi –were first and foremost career teachers, then administrators. They understood the inner workings of the education system as well as its pitfalls and failings. Consequently, emphasis on the learning culture was robust, and the senior management team at the Ministry, Board and Commission understood and subscribed to the Governor’s vision, priorities, as well as novel and sometimes, unorthodox methods.  

23.     On a personal level, Gov. Obi proved himself to be the most active institutional inspector for the education sector. He visited almost every secondary school in the State, often unannounced. He was in direct phone contact with Senior Prefects of most Secondary Schools and thus gleaned complaints and information from them, that helped the Government adjust its policies, targets and standards. Gov. Obi often ate meals with students to ensure high nutritional standards and avoid stunting. As attested, “By having the lowest rate of stunting at 7 percent, Anambra has one of the best schooling outcomes in literacy, comprehension, and numeracy among school-age children as well as leads in external examinations in the country. Literacy rate in the State is 71 percent while comprehension and numeracy are 47 and 77 percent respectively.” Such intrusive monitoring resulted in the unprecedented decision to give some targeted or designated government grants, directly to the school principals and managers, in the presence of their students. This support for academic and professional standards overtime, proved complimentary to infrastructural rehabilitation Gov. Obi had made his first priority. But it was perhaps the gains made with the institutionalization of “the ICT infrastructure, tools and competencies for best practices in governance, management, instruction and learning” that turned Anambra State schools and its common educational system around. It must however be acknowledged that the collaboration and synergy between the government and the missionaries improved vastly with the return of their schools and their sustained funding by the government.

Gray Areas Requiring Attention 

24.   Aside from Obi’s quest for good governance, it is generally believed that it was his unfettered passion to protect the rights and heritage of the succeeding generation that drove his educational policies. As he once remarked, “Any society that deliberately allows its educational institutions to fall into stupor has already arranged the burial ceremony of the leaders of tomorrow. A progressive leader who sees danger for his people must take serious, radical actions, even if they are unpopular, in order to bring renewal and re-birth.” Over all, Governor Obi’s leadership style and personal touch, guaranteed that educational planning, management and governance issues were not altogether abandoned to school management teams or school administrators and teachers, since some were more inclined to institution-building measures aimed at self-promotion, career advancement or self-enrichment.  

25.   Despite all the positive developments and recorded achievements in the education sector in Anambra, it was not eureka in every regard. There were some subsisting challenges, and certainly, a few gray areas crying for attention. Housing deficit in Nigeria also extended to boarding schools. The implication was that the few students who were in boarding schools and therefore in controlled environment, were not necessarily sheltered from contamination and bad influence of the day students. By extension, the rising spate of cultism became all the more difficult to monitor and control. Furthermore, the dearth of proper and adequate facilities translated into limited and in some instances, non-existent inter-collegiate sports. High enrolment rate resulted in bloated and over freighted classrooms, which in turn affected the teacher-student ratio.  

26.  While the oversight management bodies such as Ministry of Education, PPSSC and ASUDEB, focused mainly on infrastructure, staff and academic development, they inadvertently overlooked the required stringent monitoring of private schools. Such failings gave rise to some illegal, non-registered and non-accredited schools, and created room for the proliferation of the so-called “Magic Centres” that induced and influenced examination malpractices. Finally, it was observed that schools in Anambra like most schools in Nigeria were run mostly by female teachers. This reality reflected a national paradigm shift, in which teaching was no longer seen as a suitable male vocation. The afore listed shortcomings and challenges were being tackled, but certainly, they were not being addressed as robustly as decrepit infrastructure and supply of teaching aids and funding for salaries, ICT and curriculum development. Also overlooked, is the low enrollment and high dropout rate of boy students. In this context, Anambra still presents a paradox; the south-east zone to which Anambra State belongs “which is considered to be one of the academically privileged zone, generally records low male enrollment vis-a-vis female, Anambra State is the worst case scenario, as the 2003/2004 academic year records indicate.” This phenomenon, which started in the post-civil war years, has continued till date.  

29.  One unfinished business of the Obi Administration related to his educational policy, was the approval of the Ononiba Committee report and the gazetteing of the Government’s White Paper on the handover of schools. Undone, it meant that the Catholic and Anglican missions and private owners that received their schools back could not claim absolute ownership to them, if contested. The Missionaries for their part, were unwilling, therefore, to plough the huge subsidies they received from Government into some contested schools. Domesticating and formalizing the school handover into an Executive Act, was one of the residual policies the Willie Obiano Administration inherited on assuming office in 17 March, 2014. It took another fifteen months, before the draft report received Gov. Obiano’s approval for gazetteing as a White Paper. 

Conclusion

28.  The pertinent and perhaps critical question of this assessment is: What exactly did Anambra State do differently during the Obi Administration that resulted in the revitalization of the school system and shifting it away from the realm of dysfunctionality? It is well beyond debate that “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.” As another analyst confirmed, “Anambra State’s outstanding educational performance began with the handover of the management of a number of schools to their founders, namely, the Christian missions and the pumping of considerable resources to the institutions. When ex-governor Peter Obi initiated the handover policy, he fell out with the powerful Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) which was diametrically opposed to it for self-serving purposes, but he was able to stand his ground.”

29.   Governor Obi handing back schools to Missions and undertaking continued State support for them was indeed a return to status quo. While Obi did not formally define the funding as grant-in-aid, it is known that in colonial and pre-independence Nigeria, parochial schools received funding and fiscal support from regional governments. That policy trend continued after Nigeria’s independence as evidence by Dr. Charles Anyaeji’s recall: “Historically, I attended C.K.C. (Onitsha) when (late 60s) it was still under the control of the Catholic Church. At that time C.K.C. was in the category of the Government grant-aided secondary schools. In the case the funding of the College was shared between the Catholic Mission and the Eastern Region.” Regardless of the funding modalities, what matters most, is the broad acknowledgement that educational policies and strategies under Gov. Obi, including the pivotal handover of schools, were catalytic to the rebirth of qualitative education and sustainable high performance in that sector. That many Nigerian States were being pressured by their indigenes to follow the Peter Obi Model of educational system, should suffice as a stand-alone testimony. 

30.   Various analyses, independent assessments and broad acknowledgement of the accomplishments of the Peter Obi administration in education was encapsulated thus: “Investigations by the Nigerian Catholic Reporter show that the return of schools to churches, the original owners, who were stripped of ownership and control at the departure of colonial founders, has raised academic standards and improved infrastructure of affected schools. The material and financial support accompanying the handover of the schools and fresh managerial strategies, appears to have provided the impetus for the turnaround.” Continuing, the Nigerian Catholic Reporter investigative report drew this unvarnished conclusion: “The cumulative result of these investments is the laudable performance of Anambra State candidates in external examinations such as the West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination. For two consecutive years, 2013 and 2014, Anambra State has come tops as the best performing State with the highest number of successful candidates in this examination, thus justifying government’s huge investments in the sector and the handover of selected schools to Missions. Currently, indications are that more Mission schools in the country, especially the Catholic Schools, are following the footprints of the Mission schools in Anambra State.”  

31. There is evidence that “the current governor of Anambra State (Gov. Obiano) has continued to support initiatives that would improve the quality of education obtainable in schools in the State;” that literacy standards remain high, and that the State has also remained a “reference point for its alliance with the Missions,” thanks to the Peter Obi Model and legacy. Reportedly, “Public – mission schools [were] run with good Government and Mission funding arrangements that had resulted in improved infrastructure, discipline, better academic performance and positive competitive spirit.” Curiously, nearly four years after the Obi Administration ended and the education support policy and strategies presumably changed; the national ranking of Anambra State schools in NECO and WAEC examinations dropped.

32.   Nonetheless, a vast body of literature, including research papers, media analysis, investigative and schematic reports exists on the Anambra educational Renaissance during Peter Obi’s tenure. The strategies, the methodology and policies Gov. Obi deployed to overcome such challenges are equally well identified and readily exist in the public domain. What is perhaps under stated, and almost inexplicably, is why other contiguous states, which faced the same dilemma and institutional and infrastructural challenges like Anambra, were not able copy the Anambra model earlier on. The fact that such States did not measure up to or surpass Anambra both in revitalizing their education sector, makes the Anambra success story under Peter Obi all the more compelling, instructive, valid and worthy of emulation. END

  [Reference and Citation Annotation] Anambra State Education Rebirth – An Educational Policy Assessment Report. ©Selonnes Consult Ltd. 2018.  For PDF version complete with references and notes, click on : http://bit.ly/2EeiIA0

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