Gov. Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa has promised to give free uniforms to all public primary and secondary school children in the state from September.
The governor announced the plan on Wednesday at the inauguration of Prof. Ebiegberi Joe-Alagoa International e-Library project at Biogbolo in Yenagoa.
The library was built by the Presidential Adviser on Research and Documentation, Mr Oronto Douglas, in conjunction with Community Defence Law Foundation (CDLF).
The governor said “from September, as part of the free education policy, even the school uniforms they (pupils and students) are wearing, will be provided by the state government.
“In fact, we have actually awarded a contract for that but we are going to have only two uniforms, one for primary school pupils and one for secondary school students.”
Dickson said that all pupils in Bayelsa would be computer literate before completing primary school education.
“You must equip them for the challenges of tomorrow, while addressing the challenges of the present,” he said.
The governor said that all factors of militancy and dysfunctionality among the people could be traced to deficiency in the education system.
Dickson commended Douglas for doing the right thing by deploying his resources to the service of humanity and for the preservation of the future of the people of the state.
“I see this as something that has keyed into my administration’s concept of free education and government idea of promoting education and giving priority to investing in human capacity building and development,” the governor said.
He commended Douglas for naming the library after Joe-Alagoa, whom he described as a quintessential Ijaw man, icon and a leader.
Earlier, Douglas said the library was a teamwork facilitated by DLF and Forte Foundation with support from President Goodluck Jonathan and other individuals.
He said the supporters of the project felt that education and knowledge and its development should be given top priority.
Douglas said the library was named after Joe-Alagoa, who chronicled the history of the Niger Delta region.
He said “no man in the history of Nigeria living or dead had chronicled the history of the Niger Delta the way Alagoa has done.”
In his response, Joe-Alagoa, described the naming of the library after him as a great honour and stressed the importance of library in education.
He thanked Douglas for the honour done him. (NAN)