SAN FRANCISCO, September 30, (THEWILL) – In a bid to boost pupils enrollment in schools across the state, the Borno State governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, on Monday, offered free transportation to secondary students in the state as he donated 30 buses worth N20 million for that purpose.
While delivering the 112-seater buses in Maiduguri, the state capital, Shettima said the money used in purchasing the buses was from him personally purse.
The governor disclosed that he bought the buses to assist school children who miss classes because their parents’ inability to provide them with transport fare.
He noted that many elite today benefited from quality learning condition offered by the education system of the 70s but lamented that the situation has deteriorated, with the children of the poor bearing the brunt.
“History will judge us harshly if we fail to shoulder our responsibility of providing qualitative education for our children. It is very sad that some of us are taking our children to very expensive private schools in and outside the country but left the children of the poor in the poor state of public schools.
“Unfortunately, these children might be the ones that will take arms against us in future if we fail to shoulder the responsibility of providing for their needs now.
“Each of us has to contribute our quota to the development of education in the state. Some of us enjoyed the best opportunity, good education, food and books. It is an illusion to think that when we educate our children in expensive private schools, we would have secure a future for ourselves but we have forgotten that the children we refuse to train today may turn back to fight us,” he said.
Shettima said he got the idea of purchasing the buses to provide free transportation to school children when he visited the United Sates last year.
He disclosed that though each of the vehicles cost about $9, 000, he decided to buy them because of the lower cost and their ruggedness, He said government may purchase more if the free transport system was effective.
