Anambra State has been celebrating the outstanding performance of its students in national competitions, the latest being the 2020 examination into the highly competitive Federal Government in Abuja popularly known as the School for Gifted Children where it led the country.

In a letter to members of the State Executive Council sent through Basic Education Commissioner Professor Kate Omenugha, Governor Willie Obiano praised “all members of our administration for ensuring that our beloved state won the first position in this key annual examination for 14 straight years.”

Anambra State secured 30 out of the 70 slots won by the Southeast through merit in the admission process, as the zone dusted other parts of the country comfortably.

“We not only retained this very enviable record, we have, in fact, improved remarkably by winning the best positions in other examinations,” Obiano said.

Anambra State got the best two results in the 2020 admission into university admission organised by the Joint Admissions Matriculation (JAMB).

“Under this administration,” Governor Obiano proudly stated, “Anambra has represented Nigeria in different educational contests and came out with impressive results.”

While commending the Basic Education Commissioner in particular for a job well done, the governor also commended Anambra students, their parents and guardians for going out of their way to prepare comprehensively for every exam.

“This is a lesson for other states which want to excel like Anambra,” Obiano declared.

“Our state has also excelled in such areas as security, where we use the latest technology in the world to fight crime, and agriculture, as well as job creation, immunisation, prudent financial resource management and support for small and medium enterprises simply because we work harder in these areas than others.

“As a former bank executive and business graduate, I have for long been familiar with such concepts as deliberate practice and stretch.

“As you know very well, deliberate practice means working far harder than your competitors, sometimes known as the 10,000 hours principle because it has been proved that those who attain the global record of excellence in any field, including music and sports, put in at least10,000 hours of practice.

“As regards stretch, it simply means setting a target which looks almost possible to accomplish at the beginning, but is achieved at the end of the day.

“These are the principles which we follow religiously, and the result is that Anambra State has become the most competitive state in the whole federation, despite our limited resources.”

Governor Obiano expressed optimism that with the experience garnered over the years in development competitiveness that the state would achieve the goal of becoming a fully developed place in the next 50 years.

“He explained that the erstwhile Central Bank governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, an internationally recognised economist, is doing a good job with members of the Anambra Vision 2070 which he leads.”

The committee is drawing a strategic plan for the state’s rapid development, as Taiwan, Dubai and Malaysia,among other places, have done in recent decades.

Update news