Borno Public Schools To Be Re-opened Soon, Says Shettima

BEVERLY HILLS, August 26, (THEWILL) - After several months of closure due to the Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast, public schools in Borno State are to be re-opened soon. The State Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, gave the assurance , Monday, in Maiduguri, the state capital, while awarding scholarships to 20 female students of the state origin to study Medicine at the Khartoum College of Medicine, Sudan. The state government is to spend $10,700 annually on each of the 20 female students.

Shettima described the heavy investment on the scholarships for the female students as a way of empowering the female gender in the state. 'This is another milestone in our history. I am very passionate about gender empowerment. If we must develop as a state, we must take education of our daughters seriously because if you educate a woman, you would have empowered the entirely nation,' Shettima said.

Expressing his sincere desire to see the public schools reopened, the governor promised to introduce a programme where primary school pupils in the state would be given free meal at school to encourage enrolment.

Shettima also promised to give parents who enroll their children a stipend to encourage them to send their children to school.

'Indigent parents will be paid some stipend to send their children to school; this is what we can do to encourage our people, especially in Northern Borno to send their children to school. Many of our people are poor in the hinterland,” the governor said.

In an earlier remarks at the occasion, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Higher Education, Mahmud Lawan, said the state government spends N65 million per annum on 50 female students currently studying at the College of Medicine in Khartoum.