Governor Nasiru el-Rufa’i of Kaduna State on Saturday said his government was spending N3 billion on payment of school fees for pupils from primary to junior secondary schools across the state.
He stated this at the 26th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Zaria Education Development Association (ZEDA) held at Barewa College, Zaria, Kaduna state.
El-Rufa’i, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Cabinet Affairs and Special Services, Alhaji Adamu Mansir, said: “Our aim when we came as government was to ensure that basic education is truly free in Kaduna State public schools.
“Now for girls it is free all through in the first 12 years of school up to completion of Senior Secondary School and by abolishing the fees and levies, we have saved parents in Kaduna State over N3 billion every year.
“We have been providing uniforms, raised quality of meals in boarding schools and in some elected secondary schools, we are running a pilot programme that involves giving students computer tablets instead of printed text books.”
He said 15,000 students, mostly girls, were slated in the pilot scheme in the use of computer tablets, noting that their performance had significantly improved.
The governor said having completed the recruitment of more primary school teachers, government had begun the recruitment of 7,600 secondary school teachers in addition to the 2,200 English, Mathematics and Science subjects. (NAN)
