Governor Nasiru El-Rufa’i of Kaduna State on Saturday said the use of blackboards as teaching facility in public schools across the state would be stopped.

He announced the plan at the 24th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Zaria Education Development Association (ZEDA) held in Zaria.

The governor said the measure was aimed at eliminating the hazard posed to health of teachers by the facility.

Represented by Prof. Andrew Nok, Commissioner for Education, El-Rufa’i also said that government was prepared to give intensive ICT training to public school teachers in rural areas to enable them cope with the present e-learning challenges.

He said that government had already procured 5,000 Tablets (minicomputer facilities) for distribution to teachers in public schools.

According to him, about N3 billion has been committed for infrastructural development in unity schools across the state.

In his speech, the Chairman, Board of Trustees (BOT), ZEDA, Prof. Idris Abdulkadir, who is also the former Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), said the association had since inception 25 years ago, focused its energy towards enhancing the education of children in Kaduna State and Nigeria at large.

Dr Abdul Alimi-Bello, Chairman, Central Working Committee (CWC) of ZEDA, stressed the need for commitment from all and sundry to enable children gain admission into universities and institutions of higher learning.

Alimi-Bello observed that despite series of achievements recorded by the association, it still had some laudable programmes lined up but were yet to be implemented due to financial constraints.

He appealed to well-meaning Nigerians to support ZEDA towards complementing the efforts of government in developing the education sector.

In his speech, Emir of Zazzau, Dr Shehu Idris, pleaded with members of the society, especially well-to-do and elites, to contribute their quota in enhancing education of the youth.

The Emir, who was represented by a traditional title holder of ‘Fagacin Zazzau’, Alhaji Umar Mohammed, lauded the achievements recorded by ZEDA and urged it to continue the good work.

In his remark, Proprietor of Prof. Ango Abdullahi International School, Zaria, Dr Aliyu Shamsuddeen, announced a 50 per cent scholarship to 50 students from Zaria Emirate to study in his primary and secondary school.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that during the occasion, representative of the governors inaugurated a multi-million Naira 100-seater capacity e-library at the ZEDA secretariat. (NAN)

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