By Musa Solomon
Kogi State Commissioner for Education Hon. Wemi Jones said arrangements are in top gear with the State Director National Youth Service Corps to post Corp members with educational background and single honor degrees to teach in schools across the state.
The Commissioner made this known when the State House of Assembly standing committee on Education came to the Ministry on Monday on an oversight function.
Hon. Jones while addressing the issue of inadequate teachers in public schools said the State Government would dedicate some funds which will be domiciled in the Ministry of Education to be used as monthly stipend for the Corp Members.
The policy he said when implemented would see that not less than 700 to 1,000 teachers would be teaching in the State public schools every year.
On teachers recruitment, the Commissioner stated that the exercise was designed to be carried out in phases, the first phase with the employment of 1,500 teachers has been completed, saying the second phase would start as soon as the Ministry gets the approval from the Governor.
The Commissioner also noted that the payment of Examinations fees for Pupils and Students in public schools has not just improved students enrollment but students performance in Examinations, adding that students in private school would begun to benefit from the program when the State revenue has improved and the law repealed to accommodate the Private Schools.
The payment of Examination Fees according to the Kogi State Free Examination Registration Law 2024 is for Pupils and Students in public schools, he said.
According to him, the State Government has spent a lot of money on the payment of Examination Fees since the policy started in 2024.
In 2024, he explained that the sum of 884million Naira was spent and because of the increase in enrollment rate of Pupils and Students in public schools the amount increased exponentially to 1.3 Billion Naira in 2025.
He said that to include the private schools in the policy now would be Cumbersome for the State and also the policy need a lot of planning for effective implementation.
The policy he said had failed under previous administrations due to lack of planning as ghost students were imported into the list to siphon public funds.
He promised that private schools would get their fair share the moment funds are available and the Kogi State Free Examination Registration Law 2024 is repealed to accommodate them.
The State he said clearly understood the importance of private schools to the growth and development of education, emphasizing that their existence has contributed to the reduction rate of Out of School Children in the State.
Speaking, the Chairman House Committee on Education Hon Idris Aliyu representing Kogi Local Government said they were in the office to carry out their oversight constitutional responsibilities , saying that the house was aware of the work being done in Education.
He called for the inclusion of Private School Students in payment of Examination Fees, saying that the Pupils and Students in private schools are also indigenes of the State.
