NO serious government with visible and touchable track record of achievements within few years in office and with well articulated intentions and robust plans to change the narrative for a better society can address all the needs of the people at a time no matter what as Bauchi State under Governor Bala Muhammed is battling the odds to achieve within a specific time frame”.
The recently reported case of lack of teachers, infrastructure claimed to have forced schools closure and turned pupils to farmers in Bauchi State sounds an imagination beyond comprehension going by the records on the table.
There is no doubt to the fact that Bauchi like every other state in Nigeria is battling the scourge of acute shortage of qualified teachers in schools, that does not mean the state should hurry into massive recruitment of personnel as teachers without the basic requirements to bridge the existing gap. That will be suicidal!
Looking back to the 2016 statistics of United Nations International Children Education Fund, UNICEF shows that more than 10 million children of school age are out of schools in Nigeria.
The world body said about one million of such hapless children were mostly girls and unfortunately from Bauchi State, a worrisome situation that has since improved to below 300 courtesy of the deployed efforts of the present government in power towards education.
The statistics also indicated that as of 2007, there were less than 1,000 teachers teaching in Bauchi States’ over 247 public secondary schools with more than 200,000 students.
In simple arithmetic, the scenario translated to a ratio of one teacher to 200 students in public secondary schools, as most were members of the National Youths Service on ad-hoc National assignment. The records also revealed that more than 7,000 out of the, more than 16,000 primary school teachers in the state were not qualified to teach as they had no required National Certificate in Education (NCE), which is the minimum educational qualification by Nigerian standard. Such is the contributing factor to the present worrisome situation that the government is confronting with all seriousness.
The decay in the state’s education sector was malignant that only nine candidates, out of the over 3,000 candidates in the state who sat for the 2004 Common Entrance Examination passed with credits. Such was the scenario bequeathed the state from 2007 to 2019 which governor Bala Muhammed as the new sheriff confronted with vigor and changed the old order. Education observers say that when governor Bala Muhammed assumed office, most of the candidates that sat for the Common Entrance Examination in 2019, could not even spell their names correctly during oral interview session for the examination, reflecting the degree of deterioration in that most important sector.
They bemoan the unwholesome scenario, more pronounced in the secondary school level, in spite of huge investments in the sector by successive administrations that the new man at the helm is now restless while confronting the inherited decay. At the beginning of the democratic government, the worries of most observers were founded. Only four out of the over 8,000 candidates who sat for the 1999 Senior Secondary School Examination, SSCE in the state scored five credits and above.
Against the backdrop of the over N700million expended by the state government on education in that year alone, the poor showing was not only discouraging but begged for authentication of facts. Governor Bala Muhammed’s resolve to give priority attention to education is therefore understandable and encouraging. Determined to change the inherited scenario, the governor embarked on the task of renovating, reconstruction and vowed to reinvigorate the education sector and restore the fading glory of the teaching profession.
Not done, his administration embarked on training of teachers in modern teaching techniques to sharpen their memories with emerging development in research and teaching methods.
Beneficiaries of the training were selected amongst senior, junior secondary and primary schools while principals of senior, junior secondary schools and technical colleges and head teachers had undergone intensive training on train the trainers. To achieve optimum result is to improve the plan for effective school management and accountability.
Moving steadily to the goal, dilapidated educational institutions across the state had intensive renovation including provision of state-of-the-art teaching aids and other necessary facilities while a special yearly welfare package for teachers is under serious consideration for possible implementation depending on the availability of resources to support such a gesture for optimum result to reciprocate.
Commenting on the strides towards revamping education, Special Advisor to Governor Bala Muhammed on Media/Communication, Comrade Muktar Gidado said: although the governor is not an educationist by training and profession but has shown serious concern to improving education at all levels. The state has witnessed and witnessing aggressive approaches to restoring the fading glory of education particularly in the areas of infrastructure and the teaching profession.
“The school feeding system which was an inherited federal government initiative in partnership with the state government was at a time almost truncated for political reason by those piloting its affairs in the federal authority. Not deterred, the state government sustained the programme as one of the best nationwide while teaching and learning aids are adequately provided as teachers monthly salaries are paid regularly despite the paucity of funds.
“Several inherited dilapidated primary schools across the state have gone and undergoing intensive renovation works while some have been completed and put to use along with brand new furniture and highly motivated teaching staff for optimum productivity”. As the governor trudges on to change the old order, opponents on the other side of the divide disguising as political opponents, remain adamant and threats to the laudable efforts. In their usual style of twisting facts to suit their disjointed arguments, they paint the government black.
Notwithstanding the unpleasant challenges inherited, it is no secret that the state’s economy was in dire straits, given the narrative, huge sums of public funds, denominated in local and foreign currencies accruing the state were either misappropriated or in bare-faced stance, stolen brazenly that could have ordinarily provided what the governor is battling to provide in the education sector today.
The blue-print in the education sector systematically on implementation is probably sending shivers to rabble rousers that are tirelessly fighting the vow under the cover of politics and fake patriotism.
But fortunate enough, Nigerians know that because of the perilous exposure of the economy to the antics of self-styled, ‘patriotic’ sons of the soil along with their female counterparts, who took delight in dipping their long itchy-fingers into the till, and yet, are forever in the forefront for elective positions. It is foolhardy and primitive to expect the governor and his aides to stop flogging the anti-corruption rhetoric till sanity is restored.
Given the hallmarks of the governor that defines him as a leader with candor, who in all seasons, is his own man, it is futile and suicidal for any novice, toddler, jobber or rabble rouser to be second-guessing his body language because the man is a stickler for excellence which is glaringly clear. Although, most of those self-style opponents have been boxed to the corner and lost credibility and short of fighting skills, the flogging will not stop until the horses are certified cynically dead with education in Bauchi State improved and the state turned to Eldorado.
While the education sector has received and still receiving adequate attention, asphalt surfaced roads and other infrastructures are steadily reaching the doorsteps of the people across the state as a justification of a mandate within limited resources managed careful for posterity and for reference of future leaders. Under the watch of Governor Bala Muhammed in the last four years, education sector received the highest budgetary allocation that placed it above the 13 percent recommended by UNESCO and the highest ever in history of the State.
With total commitment to revamp the sector and reduce the inherited number of out of school children, good results started manifesting just few months after Bala Muhammed took the rein of government. Despite the inherited financial situation he inherited, Governor Bala Muhammed approved the release of funds to reduce backlog of expenditure on Schools Direct Feeding Programme and the subsequent release of more funds monthly for that purpose. The efforts of the governor, has improved school enrolment with a successful placement of over 42,938 students into JSS 1 and SSS1 within just two years. What again?
With the several profitable efforts put-in-place by the administration in education, the UNICEF figure of over one million out of school children dropped to the barest minimum. In his words, “Before I exit as the governor of Bauchi State, my intention is to reduce the level of illiteracy in the State to the barest minimum. Bauchi State shall be like Sri Lanka with the lowest number of illiteracy in the world”.
Muhammad is a commentator on national issues.