Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed has shed tears over the rapid increase in the number of out-of-school children in the state and the decline in the standard of education at basic education level.
Full of emotion, the governor said despite his numerous achievements in the state, his administration has failed the people of the state in the area of educational development. He therefore berated, and held the management of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) as well as Local Government Education Authority (LGEA) Secretaries responsible for sabotaging his efforts at developing the sector better than how his administration met it in 2019.
The Governor was speaking at the opening of a meeting of education sector stakeholders including SUBEB management, Ministry of Education, LGEA Secretaries and LGA Caretaker Chairmen at the New Banquet Hall of the Government House recently.
According to him, “I was thinking loudly when I discussed with Commissioners of Education, Local Government Affairs and the Chief of Staff that we need to focus on education. Because my attention was drawn to some areas where, completely, SUBEB is not doing anything after spending so many years there and bragging that we have renovated over 5,000 classrooms.
“There are mega schools that have been left untouched, unenumerated, unaccessible. They were not even brought forward by the agency for renovation. I think the quality of our work is not something to go home with because I have visited those schools myself and the roofs are either leaking or blown off”.
Bala Mohammed lamented further, telling the officers at the meeting that “The quality of supervision by SUBEB is appalling. I have done my best but certainly, there is no supervision, no quality control, it has been business as usual.
“I am highly disappointed with all managers in the sector, from my humble self, the SSG that is supervising SUBEB, the Ministry of Education and the LGAs. We have not done well in that sector, it is a shame on us.
“You are not doing anything, it is just eye service and making money. That’s all, and I will not fold my arms to allow this to continue. No, it must not continue. In Dumi here, a few kilometers from Bauchi town, an old school, older than some of the towns in Bauchi with about 20 classes, is left abandoned. Our pupils are sitting on the mats, all the roofs have been blown off,” he further lamented.
“I wonder where our Education Secretaries are in the scheme of things. The rate of attrition of teachers and schools is unbelievable, he betterly queried.
“The World Bank and UNICEF as well as other development partners are assisting us to develop the sector, but no positive results. We are regularly paying our counterpart grants. Just in 2022, we spent N3b but I can’t see what we have done with such an amount. We spent N5b and N9b yet the schools are left like that. Definitely, something is wrong with the system.”
The Governor added, “Somebody there or some people are sabotaging us. Today is not a tea party, I am not happy. Before we declare State of Emergency on education, we have to declare state of emergency on ourselves.
