Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State has attributed the rot in the state’s education sector to the failure of the immediate past administration of Martin Elechi to pay attention to the problems therein.

Umahi stated this in his country home, Umunaga-Uburu, Ohaozara Local Government Area, when the members of the State Universal Basic Education Board and the Secondary Education Board led by Chief Hyacinth Ikpor and Mr. Emmanuel Odoh respectively paid him Christmas homage.

He said: “Our educational system is very much in problem. I think the immediate past administration did not really care about education.”

Describing education as a very important sector in his administration, the governor stated the need to convene an interactive meeting of all stakeholders in the education system on how to tackle the problems.

He maintained that the desire of his administration to make the state come first in the Senior Secondary School Examination and the National Examination Council evaluations could only be achieved within the first two years of his administration through the collective efforts of all the stakeholders.

He told the Board members: “I want you to sit down and look at how to improve education. The only way you are judged is by the improvement in education.”

The governor directed them to re-evaluate their teachers before the middle of January 2016.

Stressing that no one would be sacked after the exercise, he explained that only those that were fit would remain in the classrooms, while others would be re-deployed to areas like Agriculture.

Earlier in their respective remarks, the Chairman of UBEB, Chief Ikpor and his SEB counterpart, Mr. Odoh, said they came to felicitate with the governor and to congratulate him on his election tribunal and court of appeal victories.

They restated their determination to continue to work according to the goals of the present administration to ensure that the decay in the education sector was stemmed.

•Photo shows Ex-Governor Elechi.