IT was celebrations galore recently in Part Harcourt, Rivers State, as pupils of Banham Primary School, Aggrey Road, were during the week moved to the UNESCO World Book Capital Model Primary School, situated at Moscow Road in the Rivers State capital. The formal commencement of academic activities in the school ranked as one of the best in sub-Saharan Africa marks the fulfillment of yet another promise by Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi. 

  The UNESCO World Book Capital School is one of the newly constructed 20-classroom school blocks, built across the state by the Amaechi-led administration, as part of its efforts to expand access to education by pupils across the state. The state government had on January 16th this year commenced the movement of pupils from old schools to the newly constructed one-storey 20-classroom blocks, which Amaechi promised to deliver before handing over power on May 29. 

  The relocated pupils could not contain their joy upon seeing the facilities at their new school, which include a sick bay, library, music class, science laboratories, and Information Communication Technology (ICT) unit among others. 

  Head Teacher of the school, Mrs. Ibiene Ereme, said that she was short of words to describe the kind of facilities in the school, adding that the teachers and pupils can now settle down to teach and learn as the conducive environment provided will make teaching very easy and learning fun.

   Mrs. Ereme, who was full of commendation for the government promised that the teachers would do their best in bringing up properly educated children in the new environment.

  On their part, pupils of the school thanked the governor for providing a conducive learning environment for them. They said that the new school cannot be compared to where they were coming from, observing that the new environment would make them to study harder. 

  Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Sir Ali Oruitemeka, said the pupils were moved to the new structure because the environment was more conducive for learning. 

  He stated that the upsurge in the enrolment of pupils into government-owned schools in the state necessitated the construction of 20-classroom blocks across the state. 

  The schools are well equipped with regular and e-books and are used by the state government to promote reading culture among pupils and students. Every pupil of the schools has a reading period as pupils are made to pick a book, read and summarise during the book review segment.

 It would be recalled that UNESCO, moved developments in the education sector in the state among other things, crowned Port Harcourt the 2014 World Book Capital City in April 2014. Port Harcourt beat 10 other great cities that include Oxford in England and Moscow in Russia. Governor Amaechi thereafter promised to build a world-class primary school to commemorate the feat – a promise, which he has now fulfilled with the formal opening of the UNESCO World Book Capital School, Port Harcourt.

The present administration has built hundreds of model primary schools and 24 model secondary schools in the state. It has also employed about 13, 000 teachers, offering free education with free books as part of a strong vision to promote and sustain activities that would make promotion of literary activities and make literacy a staple in the state’s agenda.