By Tobias Lengnan Dapam
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has commended the northern governors for abolishing fees in secondary schools.
Atiku who expressed his delight yesterday on his blog said the northern governors have finally done the right thing.
“I remember back in the year 2000, while serving as Vice President, I convened the Northern Education Summit, at which far reaching recommendations were made. As the highest ranking elected leader form the northern states, I saw it as my responsibility to preach the message of improved access to education, especially in my immediate region, where I knew a major educational gap existed.
“Unfortunately, all the states except two or three failed to make any reasonable move towards implementations of those recommendations. Because state governments are directly responsible for secondary education (with very important roles in primary education too), it would have been easier to drive a regional education renaissance from the state within the region, but the efforts of the summit and subsequent lobbying from my office could not convince the states. I was very disappointed.
“I am very happy at this moment that the northern states have finally decided to do what is right, and hope that more states join in this effort”, Atiku said.
He added that If the various states can properly build the primary and secondary foundations, the children will be able to make informed vocational or tertiary education decisions.
The former Vice President said there was need for expansion of facilities to cope with the growing number of pupils wishing to enter secondary schools.
Atiku further called on states to ensure that girl children receive a priority access to secondary school education.
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