Delta govt returns 40 schools to missions

Posted by admin Delta, State News Thursday, October 27th, 2011

Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State yesterday officially handed over 40 secondary schools to their original owners. It took the state 10 years to complete the process of returning the schools, as the administration of James Ibori in 2001 started the process.

Twenty seven of the schools were handed over to the Catholic mission while the Anglican mission was given eight. Baptist Convention had four schools returned to it just as one school was returned to the African Church mission.

The schools, which were handed over to representatives of the various missions personally by the governor, are scattered across the three senatorial districts.
Dr. Uduaghan said the return of the schools would improve the standard of education in the state and create room for competition, as his administration was poised to also improve the standard in public schools.

According to Uduaghan, “this action will improve the standard of education, the mission has done it before and I believe they will do it again. It will also create room for a healthy competition because government will match them shoulder to shoulder.” He also said the handover of schools to the missions would reawaken the spiritual component of education and reverse the moral decadence in the society.

Dr. Uduaghan assured teachers in the affected schools that they would still be in the state civil service, adding that they would get their pensions upon retirement, even as he reassured communities that schools would be built in areas where the only school that hitherto existed had been returned to the mission.

Bishop Jonathan Edewor of the Anglican mission, who spoke on behalf of other missions, assured the governor that the missions would not disappoint as long as there were no political inhibitions on their way.

-Sunwp_posts