By Godwin Kingsley, Lafia Nasarawa state government Wednesday said children of non-indigenous communities resident in the state have been considered in the free education programme recently introduced by Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura.
State commissioner for education, Sani Yakubu Hauwa, dropped this hint while interacting with journalists in his office in Lafia, the state capital.
He elucidated that this action is in tune with the governor’s magnanimity towards the plight of the less privilege members of the society having known that some people that may be benefiting from the gesture could be non-indigenes.
“They are residence in Nasarawa state, hence we felt there is cause to provide it for them too,” he continued, “for the provision of the free education, we take into cognizance the total number of students in the state’s schools irrespective of where they come from. I think this is the first time any state in Nigeria is doing that,” he posited.
The education commissioner maintained that it is the total population in schools that the free education programme is catering for, not regardless of whether they are indigenes or not.
Hauwa ascertained that “to us they are truly here and our assumption is that if they are resident in Nasarawa state and they found our schools worthy for their children to pass through, Nasarawa state government is ever ready to provide it for them”.
He also berated school principals collecting tuition fees from student adding that sanctions await officers indulging in such illegality.
