Kwara recruits 500 teachers, plans mega schools

Kwara State Governor Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed

The Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, has said that 500 youths had been engaged as graduate teachers to address the shortfall in teachers in rural schools across the state. The new teachers were recruited by the state’s Teaching Service Commission.

He spoke during the Democracy Day celebration in Ilorin on Wednesday.

Also, the Secretary to the Kwara State Government, Alhaji Isiaka Gold, has said that the state government is planning to establish four mega schools to bring the standard of education in secondary schools in line with global trend.

He spoke to journalists in Ilorin on the two years anniversary of the Ahmed administration.

Gold stated that the schools would be fully-owned and operated by the state government, adding that they would be of international standard.

Meanwhile, the wife of the Kwara State Governor, Mrs. Omolewa Ahmed, has identified quality education as the major key to the nation’s bright future.

She opined that education development should, therefore, not be left for the government alone.

Ahmed, who was represented by her Special Assistant, Special Duties, Hajiya Ameenat Kannike, spoke in Ilorin during the distribution of education materials to 2,500 pupils in Ilorin West Local Government Educational Area by the Abdulfatah Ahmed Consolidation Movement.

She called on all stakeholders, including corporate organisations, groups and individuals, to support  the development of education for national socio-economic, political, industrial and technological advancement.

Coordinator, AFACOM, Audu Agaka, said the exercise was part of the grassroots development programmes of the group.

He added that it was also to support the efforts of the state government in  educational development as well as in the transformation of the state.

“We are keying in into Millennium Development Goals in which they want to achieve universal basic education.  We decided to support the government in its effort to uplift the welfare of the people and advance educational standard in the state,” he said.

Education Secretary, Ilorin West, LGEA, Alhaji Adi Saka, said the project was laudable and would assist the pupils in their educational material needs.

He called on all stakeholders to emulate the gesture and contribute their own quota to the development of the state.

Saka also called on parents and guardians to give their children and wards the deserved attention on their educational advancement in line with the state government’s principle of ‘every child count.’

He stated that education was considered as the best instrument of development and a long-lasting legacy parents and guardians could give to their children and wards respectively.

“It is not out of place to passionately implore parents and guardians, well meaning Nigerians, non-governmental organisations and other stakeholders to emulate this good gesture and give full support to the development of education by providing infrastructural facilities such as buildings, classrooms, furniture and learning materials. With that, our great nation would attain the desired goal of Vision 2020,” Saka said.