The Benue State government has earmarked 2,424 illegal schools in the state for total closure in its second phase of ridding the educational sector of abnormality.

State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Dennis Ityavyar, who made this known yesterday when he received the management of New Christian Covenant College, Makurdi, led by the proprietor, Rev. Thomas Shikaan in his office, said the ministry will soon commence the exercise.

Ityavyar explained that the quality control committee responsible for the closure would follow the Ministry's already developed template to ensure that illegal schools left during the first phase of the exercise were eliminated.

Daily Trust reports that the Ministry had discovered and pencilled down the 2,424 primary, secondary and tertiary schools operating illegally in the state in August, 2017.

Ityavyar identified 1975 nursery/primary, 433 secondary and 14 post-secondary schools located in the 23 local government areas of the state as those operating illegally.

The commissioner however assured that students from the affected schools would be moved to the government secondary school in each of the local government across the state so that they do not miss out in the academic programme.

Earlier, the Proprietor of New Covenant Christian College, Rev. Shikaan told the Commissioner that they were in his office to present to him, 17-year old Moses Ape, the overall best student in JAMB for 2018 for Northcentral Nigeria.

•Sourced from a Daily Trust report