Group spends N800m on instructional materials for teachers, students in North East

Vice chairman, Presidential Committee on North East Initiative (PCNI) Alhaji Tijani Tumsa said the committee has spent N800m on instructional materials for primary and secondary schools in the North East.

Alhaji Tumsa who disclosed this to reporters in Gombe shortly after the flag off of the distribution of instructional materials to schools in the state said about 6,750 teachers and 67,500 students in the zone will benefit from the gesture.

The chairman said the instructional material would impact on the children of Gombe and North East, which had the most out-of- school children in the country.

“The indices that are associated with the states in the North East particularly on education is very poor.

The PCNI boss said stakeholders in the state would identify the school that will benefit from the gesture while civil society organisations will monitor and evaluate the impact of the intervention.

The guest speaker, Dr Nasiru Mohammed of the Department of Instructional Technology, School of Education Federal College of Education (Tech) Gombe, in his paper titled, “Roles of instructional material on student, academic performance in schools said the materials cover curriculum contents for effective assimilation.

He said empirical evidence proved that there is a great difference in the availability and use of instructional materials, while some studies concluded that lack of proper maintenance may lead to waste of resources and lower academic performance.

The state commissioner for education, Alhaji Isiaku Abdullahi said government has renovated almost all the primary and secondary schools in the state and 95 per cent of the schools were fenced in order to ensure security.

He commended PCNI for the intervention and assured that the items distributed would judiciously be utilised for the purpose meant for.