Professor Alli said:
“When you educate a child, you educate a nation. When you educate the body and mind you have an effective instrument for social and economic development. Education is the platform for progress. It is the foundation of life itself”
Between October 1979 and March 1980, professor Alli’ administration established 80 new secondary school in the state in addition to 187 already in existence. Approval was also given for the establishment of 338 new secondary school in all part of the state in such a way that no pupil would thenceforth, travel more than five kilometers from his home to attend a secondary school.
By the new dispensation, some local government in the state with just six secondary school before he was elected governor in 1979 got as many as 16 additional day secondary school in two years. Bomadi Local Government Area, which had only six secondary school for the period between 1979, got nine secondary schools within two years.
Other areas, which had many educational institutions before 1979, got more secondary school to meet 100 per cent transition of pupils from primary to secondary schools. Ethiope Local Government Area for example, which had ten secondary schools before 1979, got additional 25 secondary schools´ Similary.Oredo Local Government Area which had 16 secondary Schools before 1979 had additional 40 day secondary schools. Etsako Local Government Area got additional 32 secondary schools, Ndokwa 31, Okpebho 32, Orhionmwon 43, Ovia 32, and Ughelli 39, during the first two years of Governor Alli's administration.
The various communities, hitherto barred by government control measures from establishing their own secondary schools to supplement those of the government demonstrated their support for the leadership provided by governor Alli by building and donating blocks of classrooms to government. Therefore in less than three years, the number of secondary schools in the state rose from 187 in October 1979 to over 850 in 1983. School fees and entrance examinations to secondary schools were abolished with effect from October I, 1979. This made it possible for every pupil who had completed primary six to attend secondary school. All these were at a time when some state in Nigeria had less than 50 secondary schools charged high fees per session as in secondary schools and primary schools yet had problems with the payment of teachers' salaries.
It must be stressed, however that the rationale for the establishment of day secondary school was the need to place pupils in the secondary schools nearest to their homes, so that while prof. Alli government make a significant cut-back on student housing provision, enough ground is created for the release of resources to develop learning facilities and programmes and for pupils to socialize simultaneously in both school and domestic environment.
The growth in the number of secondary school in the state stimulates a corresponding growth in the number of tertiary educational institutions to train teachers urgently needed for the secondary school system. Four tertiary institutions for the training of NCE teachers were established in the state. This was in addition to the college of education, Abraka, which was already in existence thus bringing the number to five.
The financial generosity of governor Alli's administration to the course of education in the state was enormous. All students in the state’s colleges of Education were place on special bursary. Serving teachers admitted into any of the colleges, continued to receive their salaries in full while civil servants similarly admitted were placed on study leave with full pay. Other who was not in employment were given monthly allowance while in training. As govern Alli himself once remarked, this generous financial policy was to enable all those admitted into the their books as well as essential equipment. Within three years, the first set of graduates from the four colleges of education, numbering 3,000 joined the NYSC programme.
In order to liberalise opportunities for tertiary education in the state the government of professor Alli went further to establish two new polytechnics at Ozoro and Ogwashi-Uku, in addition to the existing one at Auchi, five school of agriculture to offer OND and HND courses one school of forestry and a new university, Bendel state university now Ambrose Alli university Ekpoma, at the apex of these institutions of higher learning. “The educational programme of my government is a complete one starting from the primary level to the university level,” professor Alli once gladly recalled during the ceremonies marking the laying of the foundation stone and launching of the endowment fund for Bendel state university (Ambrose Alli University) in March 1982. The kernel of his philosophy of liberalised opportunity for the individual was embedded in the concluding part of his address on that occasion: “By the establishment of the Bendel state university {Ambrose Alli university}, we will ensure the development of intellectual capacities of individual to understand and appreciate their environment and the acquisition of both physical and intellectual skill which will enable individuals to develop into useful members of the community”. Governor Alli firmly believed that the development of intellectual capacities of individual’s capacities could promote a more reliable and enlightened public opinion, which could be used to plan for rapid social and economic development.
Professor Alli’s concept of liberalised opportunity for the individual was not confined to the educational sector alone. Services and drugs at state-owned hospital were free from October 1, 1979. More money was spent on the purchase of drug than ever before. The perennial problem of shortage of doctors, especially in the rural areas, was solved, while the hospitals recorded more patronage. In private hospitals and clinics, delivery charges high per person whereas in state-owned hospitals, all forms of medical care were free.
Furthermore, the payment of flat rate tax, which, hitherto, had been the greatest threat and source of defeat to the rural dwellers, was abolished. Flat rate tax had been used as a tool of political oppression in past civil regimes, but professor Alli abolished it to eliminate ones and for all, its use for negative end
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