In the last six months, Ngozi Chuma-Udeh, a professor of English (Comparative Literature Stress), a novelist, a poet, a dramatist, an editor, a humanitarian and a girl-child activist, has been serving as the Anambra State Commissioner for Education. Over the years, she has developed a passion for proper education and development of children. Henry Akubuiro chatted with her recently at the state capital, Akwa, where she debunked the notion of education being a scam, as well as shedding light on some educational development issues on her table. She also discussed her writings.
It’s still the early days of your tenure as the Anambra State Commissioner for Education under the new governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo administration in Anambra where you serve as the Commissioner for Education, how has it been?
We hit the ground running, and there are a lot of changes. We have been into teachers’ recruitment and we have so many plans lined up. We have this town and gown relationship, which we are bridging. We are bringing philanthropists to come develop and recover the community schools that have gone moribund. In fact, we are trying to recover and turn our community schools into smart schools.
Everything now is technology, so we want to run the educational space with technology. We have a platform where, if you want to get at a particular child, you simply get to the education platform, get to the school, and there is the child. It’s a system we are developing, which will comprise all the public and public schools in Anambra. We want to have a kind of uniform, ecurriculum for every school, time of resumption, examination, etcetera. We also want to bring the public schools to be up to date with the private schools. A lot of things have gone wrong within the educational sector. Those beautiful schools where we studied as kids have been left moribond. So we want to recover them and bring them to the standard of the private schools.
Then, we want to create a conducive atmosphere in line with Mr Governor’s philosophy on education, which we have abridged to the following: establishment of fully functional digits education system, equal access to education for people of all classes and locality; reaching out to national and international organisations for mutually beneficial alliances; parent/guardian involvement in the education progress of the children/ward; developing the mental and physical capacity of the students through the introduction of skill acquisition classes and social activities to encourage self-sustainability and wealth creation.
Also, we are committed to education alliances with notable national and international universities for skill and academic performance-based scholarship opportunities. There is an emphasis on “Knowledge is power”, which entails the revival of the need for formal education in an education-moribund society.
Among others, we are introducing foreign language and advanced computer/robotics classes; creating a state that is not just education friendly but renowned for its ability to create self-aware students; producing the ‘complete’ set of students who can function efficiently and effectively in a constantly changing universe; unearthing dominant but self-redeeming talents through the education of the body and mind; creating the best and most accessible education opportunity for ndi Anambra; as well as encouraging education enthusiasm and producing the most competent educated minds in the country.
The governor has emphasised on global competitiveness and visibility, and that’s where we are heading. He wants to train a tribe of digitilised humans who will take their own stand in the global world.
Talking about school adoption by private individuals in partnership with the state government, have there been successful ones?
So far, about 23 people have come out to adopt schools. We just returned from Nibo where Ichie I.G. Aguowo, adopted Ezike High School, Nibo. We just flagged it off. By this morning, everything had taken shape.
In fact, this adoption of schools was pioneered in Anambra by Governor Soludo himself, who adopted a school in his hometown of Isuofia, and employed teachers, bought uniforms for the children, and transformed the whole school. Till date, he still buys exercise books and other tools for learning for the students. Such adoption is what we are begging from each and everyone in Anambra; let’s upgrade our education sector. Let us partake in the molding of our children, because, if we truly invest in education, we will not have people living in the bush carrying guns; everybody will be enlightened, and the society will be progressive.
There is this misconception going now among a section of Nigerian youths that education is a scam, what’s your response to this?
Some Nigerians say school is a scam, yet one young man landed himself in police custody. He was given a paper to write a statement, and beside him was a man who confessed to being a murderer and was begging for clemency, and was also writing a statement. So this proponent of “school is a scam” simply copied from the statement of the murderer. That’s what “school is a scam” can amount to one’s life (laughs). School is not a scam, and it will never be, for education makes a human being. There is a certain enlightenment which education brings to the human soul, and anybody who disagrees with this is not serious. It’s a gross misconception that education is a scam.
There seems to be a gravitation towards entrepreneurship by many young people today rather than pursuing higher education…
Entrepreneurship is something you can still study in the university, but sometimes people choose, maybe out of financial handicap, to stop at senior secondary level to go into business. The state governor is also interested in such people. He has a scheme for them, and, this December, the governor will be settling the “Umu Boy” —the Igbo Apprenticeship Scheme (IAS). The government is trying to support these people, because it’s no longer the traditional way of trading. The governor wants to train them in the new scheme on technology so that they cannot only wait in their shades for people to come in. They can use this training to interact with people globally. The two systems can exist side by side. We are moving forward.
You are perceived as an iron lady based on what transpired during the recent teachers’ recruitment exercise, does that tell the story of an iron lady?
(laughs) Nobody is an iron; we are all humans (laughs). When you are determined or steadfast; when you want to change the status quo; when you want to go against some wrongly established rules, you always meet opposition, and it takes that iron lady stuff and the grace of God to move it. Our society has been bedeviled with a lot of evils, and have come to think it’s a way of life. So we want to change that tradition of corruption. We want to tell the average man there that things can be done the right way, that employment should be done the right way and be for the best qualified, not for the richest. Employment, especially, when it comes to teaching, shouldn’t be bought, for what is bought is a useless venture. You cannot participate very efficiently in a “bought” job. The job has to pay you back for “buying” it, so we don’t want such things. That’s why I put my feet down with the support of Mr Governor, the chief servant of Anambra State, who is also determined to rid this state of corruption.
What happens to your writing now that you are serving the state? We know you as a prolific author…
A couple of manuscripts have been left untouched, but once I settle down, I will go back to them. In my current job, there is a lot to read and sign, inspections to make, events to attend; so I have left the manuscripts untouched for now. Before now, I was working on the Igbo Landing, a manuscript on slave history. There is a dearth of literature on slavery. I really want to concentrate on the middle passage and the effect on the Igbo community. This new novel, just like Forlorn Fate, goes back and forth in time and space, trying to settle the history of some people who settled in Senegal and the landing of the Igbo themselves in America.
Do you think you have written that masterpiece every writer craves?
In 2010, the African Women Writers Association said my novel, Echoes of a New Dawn, was a masterpiece; but I think, rather, Forlorn Fate, is a masterpiece, the one set in the Niger Delta.
When are we expecting Igbo Landing?
Maybe you will be my chief editor (laughs). It will work rather very fast.
For over a decade, you have been organising literary and intellectual festivals and gender conferences in Anambra; are you expecting further collaborations, or that’s the end of the story for now?
Of course, the tiger can’t lose its spots, no matter what. The collaborations continue. I am an activist for women and children going to school and staying in their classes, in a very conducive atmosphere where we produce skilled students. I want to see a digitalised community, technologically sound children, who can stand their grounds in the globe and, above all, I want to see a progressive society of balanced humans who will take their place in contemporary society.