The Northern States Governors Forum, NSGF, has agreed to abolish fees in secondary schools in the northern part of the country and also reached an agreement to harmonise fees paid in tertiary institutions in the region.
The Chairman of the Forum and Governor of Niger State, Dr. Babangida Aliyu, made this known in Minna in a message he sent to the National Association of Niger State Students award ceremony to distinguished Nigerians, at the Idris Legbo Kutigi International Conference Centre.
The governor added that the Forum agreed to re-introduce the Grade II 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.
Governor Aliyu, who was represented by the state Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Dr. Muhammad Nuhu, said the forum had decided to close the educational gap between male and female students in the region.
He described education as the bedrock of any development, adding that the governors had 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.
Three of such institutions, governor Aliyu said, had already taken off in Agaie, Ibeto and Tegina towns all in Niger State.
Aliyu explained 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 at an unnamed state very soon.
The NSGF chairman said his government had computerised the payment of scholarship to students in tertiary institutions and introduced the scratch card to all beneficiaries as a way of blocking areas of wastage, saying so far, the administration had paid about N1.8bn in scholarship and other allowances.
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