Vice President Kashim Shetima has urged North-East states governors to leverage on Federal Government’s Accelerated Senior Secondary Education Programme to bridge the education gap in the region.

Mr Shetima gave the advice on Saturday at the formal launch of the Accelerated Senior Secondary Education Programme in Bauchi.

The North-East states are Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Taraba, Gombe and Yobe.

The vice president said that the programme would bridge specific gaps to ensure quality of secondary education in the region.

According to him, the programme is in line with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda to transform education in the country.

“The North-East sub-region, in particular, has been a victim of our collective inability to enforce a uniform policy to drive school enrolment and the persistent cultural aversion to formal education by various communities. Through ASSEP, we will stimulate high-quality learning and incentivise achievement in science and skills development. Our implementation strategies for ASSEP will be phased, progressive, and multi-year. They will address both immediate and long-term needs.

“I guarantee that ASSEP solution will set in motion a pattern of progressive growth, raising a generation of skilled, creative thinkers who excel in problem-solving across our communities,” he said

In his remarks, Borno State governor, Babagana Zulum, who is the Chairman of the North East Governors Forum, said that the North-East region was blessed with youth demography.

Mr Zulum said, “As leaders in the region, we recognise the gap that we face in the education sector. We are particularly grateful to the Federal Government, the North East Development Commission and the entire ASSEP team for this worthy and timely intervention to help fix the weakest point in our region’s education sector. We are fully aligned with the focus and pillars of ASSEP. For the North-East, we urgently need to raise the headcount and quality of our graduates.’’

On her part, Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Regional Development NEDC, Dr Mariam Masha, said that ASSEP was designed to provide access to quality instruction delivered at scale across the six states and 18 senatorial districts of the North-East sub-region.

“The programme’s focus is pragmatic and covers Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Agriculture subjects that form the foundations of modern economic productivity in any country that aspires to develop. ASSEP goes beyond just schooling. It’s about total education, focusing on multiple aspects of an individual’s human capital (social, intellectual, psychological and emotional development). ASSEP thereby seeks to drive future development and human empowerment in Nigeria’s North East,” she said.

Ms Masha thanked the Federal Government and the North East Development Commission led by its Managing Director, Mohammed Alkali, for making the programme a reality.

(NAN)