By LEONARD OKACHIE

Gov. Alex Otti of Abia has said that 4,000 additional teachers will be recruited to raise the number of new teachers in the state’s primary and secondary schools to 9,394.

The governor disclosed this during the June edition of his media chat, dubbed Gov. Alex Otti speaks to Abians”, held on Thursday night at the Government House, Umuahia.

He said that the 5,394 first set of teachers already recruited would be deployed after their ongoing orientation in Aba and Umuahia.

According to him, the next set of recruitment will happen immediately after this orientation.

“We expect that the portal will be opened and applications will be received,” he said.

Otti said that the idea was to prepare the schools for the next academic session, given the massive enrollment witnessed since the introduction of free and compulsory education.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the State Government in January introduced free and compulsory education from primary one to junior secondary school.

The policy is to ensure that every child in Abia, regardless of their state of origin, had access to education up to the junior secondary school.

Otti harped on the need to prepare and ensure quality teachers for primary and secondary schools across the state.

He expressed his administration’s commitment to continue with the renovation of schools, including the tertiary institutions.

“In addition to the renovation, we are converting 20 schools into smart schools and work is already ongoing,” he said.

The governor also spoke on the government’s activities in the health sector.

He gave assurance that the ongoing renovation of 200 primary healthcare centres across the 17 Local Government Areas of the state would soon be completed and that most of them were ready for use.

“The kind of equipment you are expecting to see in the developed countries are already in Abia and we are not opening them without equipping them properly,” he said.

Otti, who highlighted some of his administration’s achievements in other sectors, including security, road infrastructure, sanitation and others, urged the residents to join hands with the administration in building a New Abia. (NAN)