{"id":83051,"date":"2026-02-26T07:31:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T07:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=83051"},"modified":"2026-02-26T07:31:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T07:31:28","slug":"governor-alia-building-futures-through-free-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2026\/02\/26\/governor-alia-building-futures-through-free-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Governor Alia: Building Futures Through Free Education"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Bridget Tikyaa<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Benue State is grappling with about 260,000 out of school children, a challenge Governor Hyacinth Alia says his administration is determined to confront through strategic investment and policy reforms in basic education.<\/p>\n<p>At the Benue Basic Education Summit held on February 20, 2026, the governor unveiled the Building Rights to Access and Compulsory Education for Unenrolled Pupils project, known as BRACE UP, aimed at identifying, enrolling and retaining out of school children across the state.<\/p>\n<p>Governor Alia pledged sustained funding and policies aligned with the Universal Basic Education Act to ensure free and compulsory education from Primary One to Junior Secondary School Three. He said his administration has moved \u201cfrom building schools to building futures,\u201d stressing that no child of school age should be left behind.<\/p>\n<p>Key interventions under the administration include the recruitment of over 9,700 teachers, construction and renovation of 422 classrooms, establishment of 36 libraries, distribution of more than 207,000 textbooks and workbooks, provision of toilets and boreholes, and consistent payment of teachers\u2019 salaries alongside harmonised retirement age and TRCN allowance.<\/p>\n<p>The government also revived agricultural education through school farms and distribution of farm inputs across the three senatorial zones.<\/p>\n<p>To support BRACE UP, the governor released operational vehicles and inaugurated student marshals in the 23 local government areas. At least 500 pupils received school kits from partners including the Universal Basic Education Commission, UNICEF, Universal Learning Solutions and Fidelity Bank.<\/p>\n<p>UBEC Executive Secretary, Dr Aisha Garba, disclosed a 41 percent increase in school enrollment in Benue following effective utilisation of grants, while SUBEB Chairman, Dr Grace Adagba, highlighted improvements in infrastructure, teacher recruitment, digital payroll systems and school security.<\/p>\n<p>Former Governor Gabriel Suswam described the initiative as pivotal, and the Tor Tiv, HRM James Ayatse, pledged the support of traditional institutions toward enforcing compulsory education.<\/p>\n<p>Stakeholders at the summit resolved to deepen collaboration and grassroots advocacy to ensure every Benue child has access to free, quality and inclusive basic education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Bridget Tikyaa Benue State is grappling with about 260,000 out of school children, a challenge Governor Hyacinth Alia says his administration is determined to confront through strategic investment and policy reforms in basic education. At the Benue Basic Education Summit held on February 20, 2026, the governor unveiled the Building Rights to Access and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":83052,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83051"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83053,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83051\/revisions\/83053"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}