N/E Devt. Commission , re-strategisimg to address education deficit in insurgency affected region

By our reporter

Sept. 6, 2020 - The North East Development Commission-Education Endowment Fund (NEDC-EEF) has engaged top-flight consultants to address education deficit of the North East, which was exacerbated by activities of Boko Haram.

The Chairman of NEDC-EEF, David Kente disclosed this in a statement issued by Mr Macauley Hunohashi, Head of Media and Publicity of the fund, in Abuja.

Kente said the measure was part of efforts to deliver the core mandate of the fund, adding that plans have reached advance stage to hit the ground running.

He assured that the fund would build human capacity for the North-East zone through scholarship endowment.

” We are also determined to provide educational training for families at ward, local government and senatorial district levels in all the states and further the education of over 2,400 beneficiaries of the Safe School Initiative (SSI) beyond secondary school level.

“We will offer opportunity for orphaned children and other vulnerable groups currently not benefiting from the safe school initiative.

“We will also provide short term but impactful entrepreneurship training programmes to candidates whose primary school or secondary school education was truncated by the Boko Haram and other crisis.

“Similarly, we intend to offer special scholarship opportunities to talented youths engaged in sports.

” we will establish a North East Regional Sports Institute in the future and support the training of nurses, midwives and retraining of teachers and vocational training for women and youths.

“These will in no small measure fight the menace of low human capital and illiteracy in the North-East,” he said.

Kente assured that the fund would continue to grill consultants within the domain of its core mandate which includes, but not limited to, grants, scholarship, skills acquisition, Information and Communication Technology.

He listed other areas to include training of teachers as well as provision of Technical, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training (TVET)

Kente urged all consultants engaged by the fund to see themselves as partners in progress.

He explained that the selection process for their emergence was meticulous and methodical with a view to engaging the best in the country.

He emphasised that the vision of the architects of NEDC-EEF was aimed at addressing the education deficit of the north east region which was exacerbated by activities of insurgents.

” Having been entrusted with that mandate, we cannot afford to fail our people,”. he said.

The recently inaugurated by the Chairman of the North East Development Commission (NEDC), Retired Gen. Paul Tarfa.

Tarfa said the fund was created with the mandate to offer citizens of North East states equal opportunity in ICT skills acquisition and educational training at graduate and post graduate levels.

He urged the fund to work assiduously toward the development of sufficient human capital in order to acquire adequate capacity for infrastructure and socio-economic development of the region.