Niger govt dedicates Fridays to skills acquisition in basic schools

Niger State government has announced the introduction of Fridays for skills acquisition for pupils, students at basic level in public schools.

The government disclosed that Fridays will henceforth be used for skills acquisition for both pupils and students at the basic level of education in public schools across the state.

The state Commissioner for Education, Dr Hadiza Mohammed, who disclosed this at a press briefing in Minna, said the decision was adopted to enable children to acquire skills given the challenge of unemployment in the country.

She revealed that Mondays to Thursdays will be purely for academics while Fridays would be dedicated only to skill acquisition for pupils.

She revealed that teachers will be drawn from across various schools in the state and trained on different skills, which they will in turn step down to their students.

Mohammed also lamented the dearth of qualified teachers, saying the Ministry is not resting on its oars to ensure those on ground are adequately re-trained to enable them impact positively on students

“We will no longer condone the presence of unqualified teachers to teach our children in our schools. So, we are going to re-train them.”

She decried the levies charged to parents by school managers in the state and warned school management against such.

” We say free education and yet they are asking for reams of paper from each student, especially in a school with over 3,000 students. Imagine how much, this will cost a parent that has three to four children in a school”

“And, the question is, what are they going to do with these reams of papers? We also have situations where they demand from parents between N10,000k or N11,000k to do what?

The Commissioner also revealed the commencement of a community-based teachers programme, which would allow teachers to work in their various localities without transferring them outside as a relief from difficulties faced when they are separated from their families.