By Mubarak Shuaybu Shelleng

In a physical and emotionally moving interview with one of the Baibaiko Primary School dwellers, Muhammad Abubakar (not his actual name), during which he regrettably shared with The Citizen Reports the tragic and awful condition of their school, wordily explaining to the TCR that their children have been sitting under the trees in an existing school with no classrooms but only two toilet blocks.

However, according to him, the school has been in existence since 2004, but the contractors responsible for building the classrooms had only built two latrines for the students of this pitiful community. Could this clear episode of negligence be pointed at the government for the lack of monitoring or at the contractors who failed to complete the deal due to the absence of keeping an eye on them?

“Our children have an interest in schooling, but the lackadaisical attitude of the government toward education is what makes them feel uninterested to the worst extent that we prefer to send them to Almajiranci than western education,” Muhammad said

“The school that accommodates more than 260 students sadly has just one teacher who is being paid monthly by the government, but he might spend weeks being absent where he was coming in the past but from time-to-time.” This is an unspeakable crime, another resident of Baibako of Nangere Local Government laments.

In the course of the investigation, another resident of Baibako who sought anonymity told The Citizen Reports that even though the Baibako occupants lamented, on top of their voices, over the devastating and uncared condition of the school in the eyes of the Yobe State Government, nothing positive has been yielded other than unfulfilled promises.

The mind-boggling statistics released by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2022, revealed that Yobe State is among the states with the highest number of out-of-school children in Nigeria with a total number of 462,164 children.

Also, in 2022 the Yobe State Government claimed to have spent over N4.465 billion on various educational-related expenses, while according to the Yobe State Basic Education Sector strategic plan, the actual classrooms requirement for Primary and Secondary education in the State was found to be 15,889. While only 5,499 were functional, which indicated a deficit of 10,390 classrooms ( about 65%).

The report further added that the number of teachers in Basic and Secondary Schools in the State is 9,316. However, the teachers are taking care of over 673,145 students. Nevertheless, based on the UBE recommended teacher-pupil ratio of 1:40, about 16,829 teachers are required.

In addition, the Yobe State Government is budgeting and allocating a huge amount of funds to the education sector, and a fundraiser-like appeal has been established by the same state government in 2021, but it seems like nothing promising is being observed as far as education is concerned in the state. This is because nearly all of the state’s products have been hanging toward the ground, expressing the sorrowful situation of education in the state.

The government of Yobe State should bear in mind that no optimistic project could be implemented in the absence of monitoring because it paves the way for you to observe any sort of negative deviation from the implementers. Otherwise, all their projects—not only the educational ones—would end up dying down. Like any other child, the children of Baibako deserve a better and sound education from the Yobe State Government.

The Bauchi State Government has directed all private schools, integrated Quranic schools and public schools in the state to participate effectively in the 2022/2023 annual school census exercise in the state.

The state Commissioner for Education, Jamila Dahiru, disclosed this in a news conference in Bauchi on Tuesday.

According to her, a circular had been sent to all education secretaries of the state local education authorities, adding that the Secretary to the State Government, the Chairman, state Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), among others, were also copied.

The commissioner explained that the directive for effective participation of the aforementioned schools in the census exercise was sequel to the realisation that data was important for proper planning and other administrative purposes.

She added that the move was to also ensure effective service delivery in the educational sector of Bauchi state.

“We, hereby direct all private schools and integrated Quranic schools in the state that they must key in in the annual school census which is to be conducted by the Ministry of Education, starting this week.

“All these schools are directed to provide their records to the ministry through their Education Secretaries of their various local government Authorities and are to cooperate with the education authorities that will be coming for the annual school census.

“Failure to comply with the directive will be met with severe sanctions and this submission must be made on or before January 27, 2023,” said the Commissioner.

The Multimillionaire Naira Education, Health and Water Sanitation Supported Programme has been inaugurated at Dagauda, District in Dambam Local Government Area of Bauchi State.

The Project has three Major components including Model Primary School, Primary Healthcare Center PHC as well as Water Sanitation and Hygiene WASH under the Bauchi State, Federal Government and African Development Bank supported programme.

The Model Primary School Project comprises twenty six classrooms, ICT facilities Administrative Block and Staff Quarters while twenty bed capacity PHC was equiped with State of the Art Medical facilities for effective service delivery.

Inaugurating the projects at Dagauda Town, Governor Bala Mohammed said similar facilities were provided in two other Local Government Areas of Giade and Alkaleri.

Bala Muhammad said Dagauda Community was chosen for the project considering it’s distance from the state capaty and limited access to quality education and healthcare services.

He charged the benefiting community and the Caretaker Committee Chairman of the Local Government to protect the facilities provided for the benefit of future generation.

The Governor used the opportunity to solicit for support of his second term candidacy when he visited palaces of District Heads of Dambam and Mashema.

Bala Mohammed also addressed thousands of PDP supporters at Dambam Central Primary School Where he reaffirmed commitment to do more if re-elected.