*doles out N10m
By; BALA B. BITRUS, Minna
Baze University, one of the privately owned Universities in Nigeria and based in Abuja has applauded efforts by the Niger state government towards revamping the educational sector in the state. It said the commitment of governor Abubakar Sani Bello in revamping teacher education in the state was worthy and commendable .
The University on Tuesday donated N10 Million to encourage the efforts of the state government in teacher training and reeducation programme.
The institution in a letter of commendation to the state government, expressed confidence in the state government’s determined efforts to get the education sector right.
The letter titled “our support for teachers’ training in Niger state”, reads in parts; “with pleasure and gratitude, we submit the cheque of N10 million to Niger state government in fulfilment of the institution’s promise to support the teachers’ training programme initiated by governor Abubakar Sani Bello’s administration.
The letter signed by the Pro Chancellor of the University, Senator Datti Baba Ahmed, assured the government and people of Niger state of the continued support of the institution towards the implementation of teachers training programme.
The Pro Chancellor reaffirmed the institution’s continous support and highest regards and best wishes to the government and it’s citizens”.
The present administration in Niger state had, following observation of the steady decline in the fortunes of the education sector in the state and the downward slide and the fall in the standard of teaching in public schools in the state, resolved to tackle the problems headlong.
The government had noted that years of neglect and lack of retraining programmes for teachers, was responsible for the problems in the education sector.
Governor Sani Bello therefore reintroduced the teachers training programme in the state and followed it up with the establishment of three Teacher Colleges, (Teachers Professional Development Institute, TPDI), which are located in each of the three senatorial zones of the state.
The present adminstration had in collaboration with the Cambridge University of United Kingdom entered into a working partnership to review the teacher’s training curriculum in the state with a view to engaging teachers in refreshers courses for uptimal service delivery.
The state government set up a  working committee headed by an educationist and school administrator, Dije Bala whose committee was charged to midwife the teachers training programme in the state.
