The Katsina State Government has approved the employment of 1,000 security guards for all boarding secondary schools to secure lives and property of students.

Gov. Aminu Masari disclosed this during the Third Convocation ceremony of the Umaru Musa Yar’adua University, Katsina on Saturday.

Masari said that the decision was in view of the prevailing security situation in the country.

“Even though Katsina is considered as one of the most peaceful states in the country, the government is not taking chances to allow students to be vulnerable to attacks by criminals.

“The state government is committed to protection of lives and property of the state’s citizens as well as the students,” he said.

The governor recalled that when he assumed office in 2015, he made it clear that his mission was to recover the lost glory of the state in education and agriculture.

He said his administration equipped existing schools, building new ones, increase the number of enrolment, recruiting qualified teachers and retraining of manpower to make the sector attractive.

“We believe that a learned society that is attuned to the demand of its time is a more successful one, that is why we continuously commit a huge percentage of the state budget to the education sector,” he said.

Masari disclosed that the state government from January 2018 to date, had awarded contracts for the rehabilitation and upgrading of Government Technical College Mashi at the cost of N277 million.

He added that the government was spending N27.5 million to upgrade Government Day Secondary School, Yanduna in Baure Local Government Area.

“The government also awarded the upgrading of Government Girls Boarding Secondary School, Rogogo in Zango Local Government at N263.1 million and the rehabilitation and upgrading of Government Girls Secondary School, Sandamu at N278.8 million.

“The government also awarded the contract for the rehabilitation of Government Day Secondary School, Tama in Bindawa at N90.1 million,” he said.

The governor revealed that the government was doing everything possible to improve the standard of its owned-tertiary institutions.

Masari stated that his administration recently approved the recruitment of both academic and non-academic staff for the Hassan Usman Katsina Polytechnic, Katsina, and Isa Kaita College of Education, Dutsin-ma.

The governor urged the management of the university to boost its internally-generated revenue through collaboration with the private sector and corporate bodies that support its course.

“While this administration implores this institution to take alternative sources of revenue seriously, it is committed to provide the support to enhance its service delivery.”

He said the government would continue to release funds to cater for the running cost, such as staff training and development of the university.

News Agency of Nigeria reports that 1,397 students graduated from the university, out of which 1,290 bagged first degrees while 107 got their post-graduate degrees. (NAN)

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