Education
Alhaji Ibrahim Salihu-Sadiq, Chairman, Ikara Local Government Area of Kaduna State on Wednesday said the council had disbursed over N22 million as bursary allowance to more than 1,600 students.
Salihu-Sadiq, who made this known in an interview with newsmen in Ikara, said the bursary covered students from the area studying in universities and other tertiary institutions across Nigeria.
He said: “We have screened over 1,600; so long as a student is an indigene of Ikara Local Government who gained admission into a university, college of education, polytechnic or any other tertiary institution he or she is entitled to it.
“To God Almighty be the glory, we have paid the first and second batches with a total of 1,026 and 495 students respectively, now we are into the third batch which is the last.
“It might interest you to note that the bursary allowance is unlike the old scheme where a student gets a token of N3,000 or N5,000.
“Those with professional courses like medicine, pharmacy among others receive N30,000 each.
“Those offering science courses get N25,000 each while those studying arts courses at degree levels receive N20,000, diploma and NCE get N15,000 while certificates are given N10,000 each.”
He said the council also gives each student going to law school a total sum of N300,000 for registration.
Salihu-Sadiq added that the council also procured JAMB forms for 100 students.
He added that a computer training programme was also organised for the students to acquaint them with computer knowledge to be able to take Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) Computer-Based Test.
He disclosed that a new technical and vocational centre was established at Government Secondary School Ikara, but added that the centre was about to close down due to non patronage.
According to him, the council had intervened by paying for many of the students to undertake the qualifying examinations.
The chairman said they provided some learning materials and furniture aimed at improving the learning atmosphere in schools.
“We have constructed 12 blocks of classrooms across the 10 political words, each of the blocks of classrooms has an office attached to it where teachers can use it as staff room.
“Apart from that, we do pay teachers as at when due; we pay them their leave grant promptly and we have already implemented the new minimum wage for teachers in our primary schools,” he said.
On the Honorary Doctorate Degree conferred on him by S K University, Benin Republic, the chairman said it was as a result of his contributions to education in his local government area.
“The university said they came to Nigeria and sampled the performance of council chairmen especially in the area of educational and rural development and they selected Ikara to be among the best.
“Kaduna State is the first to implement the N30,000 new minimum wage and Ikara is the first to start paying teachers with new structure among the 23 local government areas of the state.
“Since we came onboard, we do pay salaries as early as 26th and at most 28th of every month, I think this is what prompted the university to identify us for the award,” he noted.
He urged the public to sustain the prevailing peace in the area as it is necessary to remain law abiding citizens to accelerate growth and development.
While calling on people of the area to rally round the present administration at all levels to gain more dividends of democracy, the chairman urged them to be good ambassadors of the local government at all times. (NAN)
– Oct 23, 2019 @19:24 GMT |
Tags: 600 students–Chairman Kaduna LG disburses N22m bursary to 1
