The Metropolitan Archbishop of Owerri Archdiocese, Most Rev. Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji, has criticised what he described as ‘totalitarian’ and overreaching education policies being implemented by the Imo State Commissioner for Education, Prof. Benard Thomson Ikegwuoha.
Ugorji, in a statement, expressed concern over what he described as increasingly despotic directives issued by the commissioner, particularly through social media.
The Catholic prelate said a healthy education system depended on collaboration, open dialogue, academic freedom and mutual respect among administrators, teachers, parents and students.
He alleged that the current leadership of the Imo State Ministry of Education had adopted what he described as a dictatorial and high-handed approach characterised by intimidation, suppression of dissenting voices and the dismantling of democratic procedures.
He said: ‘This top-down approach threatens the foundational principles of our educational system. strips educators of much-desired initiatives and decision-making power, and replaces them with rigid and flawed directives’.
Ugorji said he was particularly concerned about what he described as policies that centralised control and micro-management of mission and private schools.
He said: ‘Of particular concern are recent policies that centralize absolute control and micro-management of mission and private schools, compelling Christian schools in Imo State to observe Islamic holidays, dictating dates for the resumption and closing of schools, issuing threats of punitive measures against educators who voice professional concerns, and trying to exclusively choose textbooks from the list of government approved textbooks and unilaterally fixing their prices’.
According to him, such actions did not serve the best interests of Imo children but could create an environment of fear, coercion, intellectual subjugation and stagnation.
The Archbishop maintained that education should promote critical thinking and diversity of thought rather than enforce what he described as rigid ideological conformity.
He said: ‘The administration of our schools cannot be run like an autocracy where absolute compliance is demanded with threats, and without openness to the informed opinions of stakeholders’.
Ugorji called on the Commissioner for Education to immediately halt what he described as unilateral directives and engage in transparent and meaningful dialogue with stakeholders in the education sector.
He also appealed to the Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma, to call the commissioner to order, saying this would prevent the actions of the ministry from being interpreted as the position of the state government.
The archbishop said such actions could also create a misleading impression that the state government and the Church were in conflict.
He further urged elected representatives to investigate what he described as abuses of power and restore accountability to the Ministry of Education.
He said: ‘We stand firmly with the educators in our schools, and families in resisting these undemocratic overreaches’.