To ensure adequate funding of education in Benue, the state government plans to mobilise funds from across the different strata of the population to develop public schools.
Mrs Betty Kajoh, the Coordinator, Benue People’s Education Project, a state government initiative, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Makurdi.
Kajoh, who is also a U.S.-based Education consultant, explained that in other climes, communities usually participate in the development of education by contributing toward project funding.
According to her, such funds are usually kept in a central pool and accessed by teachers or other school managers for the provision of particular school needs.
She expressed concern that the burden of education was borne by government alone, a situation she said, impacts negatively on the development of critical infrastructure and other school needs.
She said that such funding from the population would help the government to bring out the best in schools and students.
On the modalities for raising such funds, the coordinator said that farmers would be advised to donate cash crops, especially during the planting season.
She further said that the challenge of non-provision of books to secondary schools across the state in the past eight years would be successfully addressed with the new funding approach.
The coordinator also decried the poor enrolment of students into science courses in the state.
“A state with an estimated student population of 250,000, with eight tertiary institutions, you have less than 10 percent of that population studying science courses.
“At the Benue State University, only 50 post-graduate students are studying science courses.”
She said the trend was the same at the junior and secondary school levels, noting that some students loathe mathematics and consider it an anathema.
“Ninety per cent of the students go for arts and social sciences and even in the arts, they don’t go for the performing arts; the bulk of the students go for courses like Mass Communication, Political Science et cetera.”
Meanwhile, Prof Dennis Tyavyar, the Benue Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, admitted that the challenge of funding schools was real.
Iyavyar, however, expressed optimism in an interview with NAN that the challenge would be overcome through the new funding initiative.
On the poor enrolment of students into science courses, he said that the state was collaborating with the Mathematical Centre to set up a study centre in Makurdi to encourage participation in the subject.
He said that in addition to the establishment of the centre, three science schools were slated to be established in the three senatorial districts of the state to beef up science enrolment in schools.(NAN)
PD/NKO