Shettima launches Accelerated Education programme for North East

Vice-President Kashim Shettima has launched the Accelerated Senior Secondary Education Programme (ASSEP), an initiative of the North East Development Commission (NEDC), to drive transformational change in vital education outcomes and acquisition of vocational skills among secondary school leavers in six North East states.

Speaking during the launch of the programme and commissioning of the newly constructed Government Saturday in Bauchi, the Vice President explained that while primary education provides a foundation, secondary education is a bridge.

“Northeast sub-region in particular has been the victim of our inability to enforce a uniform policy to drive school and the persistent cultural perversion to formal education in this nation by various communities.”

“The consequences of the nation’s action and inaction are evidence in all indices used to assess our development. We in the Northeast occupy a quantum of position in ranking of essential services. Education being a key sector of this country, this is especially pronounced in the post primary education, while the Northeast secondary school enrollment drive stands at 19 percent far below the nation’s 39 percent.

“Governance is about inclusivity, governance is about reaching out and building bridges and the current crop of governors, I must admit, are far superior previous crop of governors. And in the North-East, I want to use this opportunity to commend all our governors for their comradeship, sense of purpose and commitment. All our governors are united in the common cause in repositioning the subregion.

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“We have no business fighting each other, we are all united by our common heritage of poverty, destitution and insecurity. More than ever before, this is the time for us to collapse into a single unit to face the monumental challenges of underdevelopment facing our subregion.”

In his remarks, Managing Director of North East Development Commission (NEDC) Mohammed Goni Alkali, said ASSEP seeks to boost the post primary education rating across the Northeast region through 3 major objectives including improved enrolment into tertiary institutions, skills development and elevation of teacher quality.

Alkali explained that ASSEP will pay special focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and communication, which foster creativity and critical thinking; it motivates and inspires young people to generate new technologies and ideas to learn from inquiry-based tasks.