The Chairman, North-East Development Commission (NEDC), retired Maj.-Gen. Paul Tarfa, says the commission is establishing a mega school in each of the senatorial zones of the six states in the region.
Tarfa disclosed on Thursday while featuring in the 50th session of State House briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team.
He said that each of the mega school in the 18 senatorial districts across the region would cost N1.2 billion each.
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According to him, one of the root causes of insurgency is lack of education.
“We talk about mega schools; if you analyse why we have insurgency, one root cause will be lack of quality education because the tag, Boko Haram means modern education is prohibited.
“So, in the commission, we said how can we intervene so that we have bottom-up approach in education?
“We said okay, let’s have a mega school where we have a comprehensive and composite structures that take care of education from primary to secondary school level.
“And, we are building one each in each of the senatorial districts in the North-East and we have 18.’’
Tarfa said that the contract had been awarded for the 18 mega schools in each of the three senatorial zones of each state in the region.
“And, each school will cost about will cost about N1.2 billion.
“It is very comprehensive; in some case where we have existing structure, we try to upgrade it to the standard we are looking for.’’
The NEDC boss said that the commission was also setting up ICT training centres with a view to equipping youths in the region with relevant skills for self-reliance.
“Coming back to modernity, we all know that ICT is very important; so, we are also establishing three ICT centres in each of three senatorial zones in the six states of the region, that’s 18.
“So that our youths can be trained in various aspects of ICT; so that they will be able to employ themselves,’’ he said (NAN)
