Over 5,000 Kwara State secondary school pupils are to benefit from this year's Mohammed Dele Belgore (MDB) Solidarity Team's programme.

This year, the MDB Solidarity Team is spicing up the programme, which began in 2011, with computer tablets.

Each tablet contains past questions running for 20 years.

The pupils can use the questions to revise and rebuild what they have learnt in various subjects.

The State Coordinator of the MDB Solidarity Team, Aliyu Ajanaku, addressed reporters yesterday in Ilorin, the state capital, at the beginning of the programme.

He explained that the computer tablets are "complementary to what the pupils have learnt in class".

Ajanaku added: "A good use of the tablets will affect the beneficiaries' performance in a very big way. This is the third year that we are running an extramural programme for secondary school pupils. We did in 2011, 2012 and now this year.

"To spice it this year, we are bringing in computer tablets, which represent the future of education in the world. There is a tremendous opportunity coming to us as we are the first set of people to utilise this computer tablets.

"We are starting with the pupils who are running the MDB extramural this year. The programme involves the selection of pupils from various centres. As a matter of fact, we have 17 centres running across the state: in Kwara North, South and Central. Twenty pupils from the three centres will come to this special centre here to learn the rudiments of the computer tablets and their use. We have a software engineer who will run the programme.

"Today, we are doing the opening ceremony. Totally, over 5,000 pupils across the state are benefiting from the extramural lesson this year and it has minimum teachers per centre.

"On the whole, we have 187 teachers in the three centres. Among them are professionals, university graduates, job seekers and others who are participating in the programme. The centres are in Kaiama, Patigi, Shao, Lafiagi (Kwara North), Ilorin West, South, East and Asa local government areas (Kwara Central). In Kwara South, we have in Offa, Oro and Oke-Onigbin.

"The ultimate objective is to make sure that each of the pupils has a computer tablet of his own. But for now, they are going through the training.

"My advice to the beneficiaries is that they keep their fate with what we are doing as we see them as the future leaders. We are helping to build them for tomorrow. Their peers are all over the place watching television and whiling away their time. These ones are spending valuable time here learning what we are offering them free."

On the criteria for the selection of beneficiaries, Ajanaku said: "...The programme came out not necessarily because of politics. The essential thing is that we want to be contributing our own to the society, whether we are in power or not. This is because education is one of our cardinal objectives. We select the benefiting pupils based on merit and good conduct."