Jonathan pledges to secure brighter future for youths

Yenagoa – The current administration is determined to secure a brighter future for the Nigerian youths through massive investment in the education sector, President Goodluck Jonathan said on Friday in Yenagoa.

Jonathan, while addressing 550 beneficiaries of the Bayelsa government scholarship, said the federal government would discharge its responsibility of empowering the youths.

Jonathan had in August received the first set of the beneficiaries of the scholarship who finished from secondary schools across the country.

President Jonathan commended the Dickson-led administration in the state, noting that education would boost the capacity of the youths.

“The policy of catching the brilliant pupils from the primary school level and exposing them to quality secondary education will enable them to compete well among their peers,’’ he said.

Jonathan said government would encourage any product of the secondary schools who excel to qualify for “the federal government scholarships for the first class brains’’.

He said he would personally support the state government to raise funds to be saved in dedicated accounts to sustain the scholarship scheme.

In his remarks, the Bayelsa Governor, Mr Seriake Dickson, promised to extend secondary school scholarships to 250 pupils, up from 100.

The state Scholarship Board had selected 300 beneficiaries for the post-graduate studies for Masters and Doctoral degrees within and outside the country.

The beneficiaries underwent orientation preparatory to their departure to their respective secondary schools.

Gov. Dickson charged the beneficiaries to be good ambassadors of the state.

He said further that the state government would increase the funding for post-graduate scholarship, currently standing at N1 billion, because of the interest shown by many Bayelsans.

The governor stressed the need for the selection process to be guided by merit.

Earlier, the state Commissioner for Education, Chief Salo Adikumo, had said the government had the desire to create new opportunities for the teeming youths of the state.(NAN)