Abia State Governor Alex Otti has announced that the government will criminalize the non enrolment of school-age children in the state, warning of serious penalty for parents and guardians who fail to enrol their children or wards of school age.
The governor announced this during the 2024 Children’s Day celebration, saying the policy would be supported with a legislation by the Abia State House of Assembly which would prescribe a penalty for offenders.
Governor Otti disclosed that scholarship would be created for children whose parents are financially disadvantaged, to ensure that every child of school age goes to school, assuring that no child in the state would be marginalized or molested.
He expressed sadness over the plight of the children with special needs like the deaf, while apologizing to
Abia children for the past administrations which owed teachers’ salaries and allowed environments to rot.
