The Northern States Governors Forum has resolved to abolish any type of fees paid in secondary schools in the northern part of the country just as the forum also agreed to harmonize fees paid in tertiary institutions in the region.
Chairman of the Forum and Governor of Niger state, Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, made this known in Minna yesterday in a message he sent to the National Association of Nigerian Students award ceremony to distinguished Nigerians which took place at the Idris Legbo Kutigi International Conference Centre.
Aliyu said that the forum has agreed to re-introduce the Grade 2 teachers training programme abolished across the country several years back as one of the ways to improve the standard of teaching in schools in the region.
Aliyu, who was represented by the Niger state Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Dr Muhammad Bashir Nuhu, said the forum has also decided to close the educational gap between male and female students in the north.
The described education as the bedrock of any development, adding that the governors have also resolved to establish schools of preliminary studies to prepare students for admission into tertiary institutions not only in the region but in the country as a whole.
He said that an education summit aimed at addressing all the problems associated with the growth and development of education in the region, especially the problem of almajiri and falling standard of education, would be held in an unnamed state very soon.
The NSGF chairman said his government in Niger state has computerized the payment of scholarship to students in tertiary institutions and introduced the scratch card to all beneficiaries as a way of plugging areas of wastage, saying that so far the administration has paid out over N1.8 billion as scholarship and other allowances.
While praising NANISS for the recognition of those that have contributed to the growth of education in the region, Aliyu said that the Niger state government would join hands with the organisation in the construction of a befitting secretariat in Minna saying that government would co-fund the project with N15 million.
Earlier, the Etsu Nupe and Chairman of the Niger state Council of Traditional Rulers Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar, who was the special guest at the event, had commended Governor Aliyu for his transformation of Niger state.
Represented by the Emir of Lapai, Alhaji Umaru Bago, the monarch said traditional rulers in the state were particularly impressed with the no discriminatory fees policy of the administration.
At the ceremony Governor Aliyu was honoured with the National Outstanding Leadership Award (NOLA) of NANISS.
Other awardees were the Director General, Niger state Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Hajiya Sa’adatu Kolo, member, Niger state House of Assembly, as well as the Etsu Nupe, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar.
