The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has commissioned the Air Force Comprehensive School (AFCS) Kaduna.

The school, which existed as a day secondary school, was recently remodelled, renovated, expanded and upgraded, by NAF, to a comprehensive school to enhance service delivery.

Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, represented by the Commissioner of Education, Prof. Andrew Nok, was the Guest of Honour at the commissioning ceremony.

In his remarks, the Guest of Honour stated that the milestone achievement could not have been possible but for the visionary leadership of the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar.

He commended the CAS for what he described as “wonderful and laudable projects in the NAF”, adding that the feats so far recorded by the CAS were worthy of emulation. He added that Kaduna State would indeed benefit from the project, as it would improve the educational standard of children in Kaduna.

Air Marshal Abubakar, on his part, expressed delight on the commissioning ceremony of AFCS Kaduna. He stated that the conversion of the school from a day school to a boarding one was in preparation for the future and that it was in response to the assessment of the present security environment.

According to the CAS, the expansion of the school was part of the NAF’s contribution to solving the girl-child education problem.

The upgrade carried out in the school included the building of new structures, provision of digital interactive boards and computers. The school was not only converted to a boarding but was equally expanded to accommodate 720 students as against its previous capacity of 540 students.

In the past two years, NAF has upgraded the infrastructure in its secondary schools in Uyo, Ibadan, Enugu, Shasha (Lagos State) and Jos as a way of repositioning the schools for the challenges of the 21st century. In addition, NAF has provided opportunities for training and retraining of teaching staff in its secondary school.

“All these,” according to NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Olatokunbo Adesanya, “are part of the capacity building efforts of the CAS to ensure excellence in service delivery at all NAF secondary schools. The NAF sees the provision of quality education at an affordable cost as a long term solution to some of the nation's security challenges.”