Niger State Governor, Alhaji Abubarkar Sani Bello, has directed the State Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to conclude arrangements to kick-start school feeding programme for primary school pupils in public schools across the state.
Bello gave the directive when he hosted a team of education experts from Cambridge University, United Kingdom and MRL Public Sector Consultants on, “Transforming Education in Niger State (TENS)”, a new education initiative by the present government.
The initiative which is part of efforts to reduce the burden on parents due to harsh economic realities, Governor Bello said and directed the relevant ministry to carry out a pilot scheme with a view to fully implement the project in all public primary schools in the state.
According to the governor, “We benefited from such schemes when we were young. Ministry of Education, Science and Technology should embark on a pilot scheme to enable us capture all schools in the state”.
On the level of decay in the sector, Bello advised that it was no longer fashionable to continue to lament on the decay in education sector, hence the decision and commitment of his administration to transform the sector to global standard.
He pointed out that he was aware of some of the challenges concerning the sector in the state and expressed his readiness to restore education standard in the state and lay solid foundation for it to attain global standard.
“Things started getting bad in the middle and late 90s. Our schools that used to function well went bad and now we are committed to seeing the sector restored. We strongly believe we can correct these lapses we met because this is the beginning of a new page in the sector,” Bello assured.
The leader of the Cambridge University team, Professor Colleen Mclauglin, had expressed the need for the government to introduce school feeding in public schools across the state because, ‘feeding programme is as important as good learning environment’.
Professor Colleen gave data analysis of the challenges to be expected from both the teachers and pupils if the state government should heed the advice also expressed derivable transformations that can be achieved in the education sector of the state economy.