Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed has decried the increase in number of out-of-school children in the State and the decline in the standard of education at basic education level. The governor who said that his administration has failed the people of the State in terms of educational development, berated the Management of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) as well as Local Government Education Authority (LGEA) Secretaries for sabotaging his efforts at developing the Sector better than how his administration met it in 2019.
Bala 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 Banquet Hall of the Government House on Monday.
“I was thinking loudly when I discussed with a few Commissioners; that 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, unaccessed, 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,” he said.
Bala Mohammed lamented further, telling the officers at the meeting that “The quality of supervision by SUBEB is appalling, so you have the opportunity to change. 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.
“You are not doing anything, it is just eye service and making money. That’s all, and I will not allow this to continue. No, it must not continue. In Dumi here, a few kilometers from here, 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.
“One of the local government Chairmen of Bauchi is from that area, it is a shame. The same thing with me, in my area, when I visited on an evening visit myself, even here in Yelwa, schools were left abandoned as if we have not started anything. I don’t understand.
“There was a time I gave you a marching order that all these schools should be enumerated and they were done. We did it through the people who are living in Bauchi. We even brought local contractors from the state so that they can benefit from the process but things are not going well.”
The displeased governor further queried, “I wonder where our Education Secretaries are in the scheme of things. The rate of attrition of teachers and schools is unbelievable.
We are returning the SUBEB to the supervision of the Ministry of Education. It is no longer going to be reporting to me through the SSG and they must use our LGEAs in the LGAs, it is a partnership.”
“Nobody should come to me with a file if not through the system. You must develop technical capacity for supervision. A situation whereby I see some buildings as if no supervision is being done is not acceptable. The situation where some schools are unenumerated for renovation is no longer acceptable.
“We know the numbers, some places where you are supposed to have large number of classes, you don’t have it. We must try to strike a balance. Even some of the schools we renovated or built, are not good enough.”
Governor Mohammed closed his statement by warning that he would not hesitate to sack anyone no matter his/her status in government who is believed to be working against the success of his administration in improving the quality and standard of education in the State
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