He also pledged to continue with the free education policy in the state.
Amaechi spoke at the public presentation of the Rivers State Ministry of Education sector strategy plan and the education service charter at the Conference Hall of Port Harcourt Technical and Vocational Centre, Old GRA, with the theme "Enhancing Sustainable Development in Education".
According to him, training for teachers and their salaries form the bulk of his administration's education expense. This is in addition to providing a conducive learning environment in model primary and secondary schools across the state.
Governor Amaechi maintained that despite the challenge running a free education system in the state, he is prepared to continue with the policy and provide welfare for all teachers.
"What the teachers do is to mould the characters of the children, I hope that the teachers will be able to pay us back in equal terms the amount of money invested in education."
"We started with training, we trained the teachers, after training, we continued with employing teachers and creating a conducive environment for teachers to be able to impart knowledge to the children.
"I hope that we will improve. This morning I looked at the West African Examination Council results all over the country for three years. We have maintained consistently third (position), why can't we be first going by how much we have put in education? We need to ask ourselves that question", he said.
He disclosed that the recent fall in the state's revenue seriously affected the execution of the state's education policies, but assured that his administration would not back off from its resolve to provide quality and sustainable free education."
"I never thought that there would be a time our revenue would fall from N20 billion to N13 billion and in the past six months that's what we have been suffering, so you are literally struggling to pay salaries, that is what you need to maintain and you know all of you here workers are ready to receive the money and you are not ready to make any sacrifice".
He said Rivers State pays the highest salary to teachers in the country and also promised to fund the quality assurance department to enhance its effectiveness.
Presenting the state's education sector strategy plan, the Vice-Chancellor of Ignatius Ajuru University and guest speaker at the event, Prof. Rosemund Green-Osahogulu listed the numerous objectives of the education plan which she said would be achieved.
She said the state plans to revitalize technical and vocational education and promote teachers' welfare.
She also said the state would recertify all serving teachers which she said was crucial to the success of the state education policy.
Prof. Green-Osahogulu also noted that boosting teachers' proficiency and professionalism would significantly reduce or eliminate incidents of examination misconduct in state.
Another education objective in the state, she said, would be to "render the typical staff, members and students in the education sector sufficiently ICT literate and practically skilled for life and work in a globalized and digitalized world".
The state commissioner for education, Dame Alice Lawrence Nemi said the state education sector strategy plan would last for the next three years and would cover access and equity in education, strengthening institutional management of education and standard and quality assurance.
Other areas she said would include teacher education and development and technical and vocational training and funding.
She commended Governor Amaechi's foresight in the education sector, appraising his educational drive and plan in the state as one of the country's best.
She said the governor not only built model primary and secondary schools but also equipped them with modern facilities and well-qualified teachers to impart quality education to pupils and students in schools across the state.
Before presenting the state's education service charter, Mr Suleiman Adediran commended Governor Amaechi for embarking on such gigantic and ambitious education projects in Rivers State.
He commended him also for taking the necessary steps to ensure that education becomes sustainable in the state even after his exit from office.
According to him, the state's education service charter, which is to ensure that good and profitable relationship exist between schools and teachers, pupils, students, parents and the community "is a document in which there is a commitment from the service provider, in this case the schools, private schools, secondary schools managed by Ministry and SUBEB to the customers, the parents, the teachers and the community. It will contain the standard of services that you can expect in the schools, information about them, their accessibility and how grievances can be addressed".
PRESS UNIT, GOVERNMENT HOUSE
PORT HARCOURT.
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