Nassarawa spends N 1.9b on schools renovation – Commissioner

The Nassarawa State Government says it has spent over N 1.9 billion for the renovation of schools in the state.
The state’s Commissioner for Education, Malam Tijani Ahmed, announced this to the News Agency of Nigeria on the side line of the opening of the 10th anniversary of the Total School Support Seminar/Exhibition on Thursday in Lagos.
The two-day event, put together by EDUMARK Consult, an Education Events Company and also an NGO, had its theme: “Celebrating 10 Years of Driving Innovation in Education”.
According to the commissioner, the government is committed to fast tracking its developmental agenda across the state through education.
Ahmed said: “This year alone, we have spent over N1.9 billion for the renovation of schools, putting adequate infrastructure in place as well as providing enabling environment for conducive teaching and learning.
“Between 2012 till date, government has also constructed no fewer than 700 blocks of classrooms for its primary and secondary schools.
“This is because accelerated growth and development in all sectors of the economy can only be realised through huge investment in the education sector.”
Ahmed said Governor Tanko Al-Makura had also put modalities in place to accommodate the education of people with special needs, as well as improve girl-child education.
He said: “The governor took into consideration the need to also construct an ultra-modern edifice for the running of inclusive education in the state to take care of people with special needs.
“These structures, which can be adjudged as the best in West Africa, will provide conducive environment to educate these people with special needs free.
“I need to quickly state here too that government has also prioritised the education of the girl-child and we have also increased the provision of specific schools for the education of our female children.
“We are impressed with the rate of enrollment of not only our females but our male children; it increases yearly both at the primary and secondary school levels.’’
According to him, the issue of girl-child education in the state is very important and that is why the government is insisting that all female children must go to school.
He said: “As you know, if you educate a woman you educate the nation and no meaningful development can take place if attention is not paid to the sector.’’
Ahmed said the government was also mindful of the need to secure the children while in school, considering the incessant rate of kidnapping of school children, especially in the North East.
He said: “One cannot provide adequate education if children are not properly secured, not with the current spate of kidnapping in schools in various parts of the country, especially in the North East.
“So, in line with providing standard and quality education, as well as enabling environment, we have also put in place adequate security in our schools.
“We also putting into consideration, the quality of teachers that we engage to teach in these schools.
“To us, we pay attention to bringing in not just any teacher, but qualified and professional teachers that will impact on the learning outcome of our children.
“We also improve them by exposing them to constant training and retraining; this will ensure that they remain relevant and confident enough to compete with their counterparts in other climes.’’