The Kogi State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Mr Wemi Jones has said Governor Yahaya Bello’s administration is committed to investing in the education sector.
Jones stated this during a chat with reporters in Lokoja yesterday.
Jones, who spoke on the increase in 2022 budget allocation to the education sector from 20 to 30 per cent, commended the governor for the gesture, which he described as ”a massive investment.”
Jones noted that it would be the first time that Kogi would have a governor who was genuinely interested in building the future of the state, especially in the area of education.
He said the governor’s massive investment in the education sector had resulted in the corresponding growth in the students’ population across the state.
He praised the governor for ensuring that the new Confluence University of Science and Technology (CUSTECH) Osara, went from concept to confirmation to construction and to curriculum activities under one year.
Jones said the university was designed and built to provide first-grade training in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines for youths.
He explained that the governor’s plans for the institutions in the 2022 Budget would greatly move it forward toward ensuring that it would be comparable with any similar school anywhere in the world by leveraging ICT and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
He noted that the state was already experiencing the effects of GYB intervention in the education sector.
According to Jones, in 2019, Kogi State recorded a 52 per cent pass in the WAEC examination and was rated 28th out of the 36 states of the federation, including the FCT.
He noted that because of the governor’s ingenuity and intuition, coupled with his massive investment in education, the state scored 67.2 per cent in WAEC in 2020 and moved from 28th to 14th position out of the 36 states and Abuja.
He advised the people to take advantage of the opportunities now available.
Governor Bello had presented a budget of N145.89 billion to the state House of Assembly.