By Mike Odiegwu, Yenagoa
Bayelsa State governor, Seriake Dickson, has instituted N350million, Higher Education Students Loan Scheme (HESLS), a revolving interest-free loan programme for indigent students in tertiary institutions.
Speaking during the official launching of the scheme in Yenagoa, Dickson explained that N100million was added to the initial N250million already provided by the state government.
The governor also distributed 3,550,000 free text books to public primary and secondary schools in the state.
A statement by the Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Fidelis Soriwei, said the governor harped on the need to sustain scheme insisting that education remained the only key to fighting underdevelopment, oppression and inequality in the society.
Dickson said that all other investments except education were susceptible to deterioration and called on the beneficiaries to take advantage of the loan facility to build a vibrant informed society.
He highlighted his administration’s achievements in the educational sector saying Bayelsa was ranked as one of the best performing states in national examinations.
The governor said his administration placed premium on education and made appropriate investments to educational institutions including monthly subventions to the Federal University, Otuoke and Federal Polytechnic, Ekowe.
He explained that the state government gave a monthly subvention of N10million and N5million to the Federal University, Otuoke and the Federal Polytechnic Ekowe, respectively.
He said: “Our students perform brilliantly in all national examinations and as such our performance average in all exams is getting so well that we are now rated as number one out of five or out of seven.
“One of the things that is so critical is how we decided early in our government to use education as a tool for development, as a tool for social stability, fighting under- development and inequality and so education is so important that there is nothing we can hold back.”
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