Revitalising Education in Yobe State

Since time immemorial, education has been the undisputed bedrock for any meaningful development. Modern societies rely on education to provide their basic needs, particularly manpower, for rapid development in all facets of their affairs.

Accordingly, investment in the sub –sector will be seen in all quarters as a wise investment, because without education, advancement in technology, politics and economy will be impossible, and the quality of life of the modern man will not be any better than that of his stone-age ancestors.

Education is the development of the totality of man in terms of morals, academics, attitudes etc, to enable him integrate well into the society and advance human development.

The cardinal objectives of any responsible government in any society are to see to the economic, social and political development of the people of that society which will be well achieved with the laying of a solid foundation of its education sub-sector.

The main thrust of the Nigerian National Policy on Education, 1977, as revised in 1981, is the provision of formal as well as non-formal modes of education for all citizens of the country.

The Jomtien Declaration, which Nigeria is a signatory, stated that its goal is to meet the basic education needs of all citizens regardless of age, socio-economic background, mental or physical condition.

Basic education in this context is interpreted as education aimed at equipping the individual child, youth and adult with such knowledge and skills as will enable him/her develop to his/her fullest capacity, derive maximum social, economic and cultural benefits from his membership of the society and fulfil civic obligations.

Therefore, investment in the sub-sector, as stated in the preceding paragraph, is no doubt a wise and timely investment and no amount of resources – human or capital – that will be invested can be seen in any quarter as a waste.

At the inception of his administration on May 29, 2019, Governor Maimala Buni of Yobe State, declared a state of emergency on basic and secondary education to, among other things, address the challenges bedevilling the sector for better results.

The declaration was followed by a launch of an education summit. On Monday July 1, 2019 the maiden Yobe Education Summit, gathering sons and daughters of Yobe origins from the academia, was held in Damaturu, the state capital.

Stakeholders and experts in education met and brainstormed on the need to develop a working document to tackle challenges confronting the education sub-sector in the state.

Some of the issues discussed at the summit were the need for total overhauling of the education sector. The need to review the leadership of the education ministry was also discussed, along with the number of qualified teachers, their welfare and training, strong supervision and monitoring team to be put in place; and the need to renovate, reconstruct and ensure proper maintenance and replacement of obsolete teaching aids.

Stakeholders at the grassroots level were also keyed in to make their inputs.

On October, 2019, the Technical Committee on the Revitalisation of Basic and Secondary Education in the state carried out an audit and verification of primary and secondary schools teachers to ascertain their certification and training needs as part of efforts to reposition education service delivery in the state.

As reported by the Daily Nigerian, an online newspaper on October 2, 2019, the audit and verification committee was segmented into sub-committees and put under prominent education professionals from the academia to ensure effective and early completion of the exercise.

The committee chairman, Professor Mala Daura, the current Vice-Chancellor of Yobe State University, said that the audit would not only determine the qualification of teachers but also seek to determine their number and ratio per students in each school.

Among the mandate of the committee was to “verify those teachers that are qualified or unqualified to teach and make appropriate recommendations to the state government. They are to determine those that can be retained as teachers while those found to be lacking in basic teaching methodology and knowledge will be recommended for transfer out of the teaching profession to appropriate section of the civil service in the state.”

The Chairman of the sub-committee in charge of Tarmuwa, Bursari and Jakusko local governmet areas, Professor Musa Alabi, in an interview with reporters in the state, said their mandate was to look into the profiles of teachers, interview them, subject them to some simple tests, as well as to determine their appropriate placement in the teaching profession.

All said and done as regards the audit and verification committee exercise, since October, 2019 to date, nothing has been heard about it ever since.

The submit deliberations on the way forward towards making the state great in education was followed by setting up of a fund-raising committee charged with the responsibility of appealing to well-meaning Nigerians and friends of Yobe State to support the effort of the state in repositioning its education sector by making donations to make this laudable project a reality and a dream come true.

On Thursday, February 10, 2022 the N25 billion Yobe State Education Appeal Fund was launched in Abuja, to, among other things, reposition the sector and avail the state’s children, particularly the indigent ones, the opportunity to acquire knowledge.

At the fund raising, the governor told the gathering that revitalizing education in the state was estimated to gulp N25 billion. He said that his administration had constructed and renovated over 300 schools, established six model schools and seven mega schools across the state.

All these grammar have come and gone, from the declaration and subsequent setting up of the fund raising committee, days, months and years have gone without seeing any tangible or concrete things on ground as regards the efforts at revitalizing the sector in the state.

Under the above caption, we will be looking at some of the data available to us and make some suggestions to the committee.

The first four-year term of Maimala Buni’s regime is at its twilight with little or nothing to show as regards the much-talked about declaration of state of emergency on education in the state.

The situation with education in Yobe State needs to go beyond mere political talks. The sector needs urgent and serious attention as can be seen in the analysis below.

Lack of accurate data, focus and credible strategic planning and inconsistency in government policies and programmes are some of the factors militating against the development of education in the state.

The percentage of pre-school age population of the state who have access to primary education is below the national figure of 47 percent. Similarly, those not enrolled in primary school are over the national percentage of 15.4 percent of primary school-age population. It is also on record that the state’s literacy level is above the national average of 51 percent.

For these laudable projects to see the light of the day, there is the need for the committee to visit all nooks and crannies of the state to afford its members the opportunity to see for themselves the pathetic condition of our basic and secondary education in the state.

Available data at the disposal of this writer reveals that the state of education in Gulani District is pathetic and embarrassing, more so, in this 21 Century. The standard is nothing to write home about and there is no meaningful move by the government to address the problem.

In this 21 Century, there are primary schools in the district that are conducting the business of teaching and learning under the trees. Evidences abound. There is also a school that has only one teacher who doubles as the head teacher and the teacher that teaches all the subjects being taught in a conventional primary school!

This is not even dwelling on the infrastructure or teaching aids. Both the teacher and the students don’t even know of the existence of such materials.

Available data also shows that places like Marwa, Ayada Tsohuwa, Borno Kichi, Choka Ammani, Sarkin Noma and Garin Mai Komo have only one teacher who teaches all the subjects and he was initially employed as Arabic teacher but due to the lackadaisical attitude of the government he found himself being the head teacher and the only teacher teaching all the subjects in the schools. This has been going on for years without being checked by the authority responsible for that. What a shame!

Our findings revealed that Gulani District has 22 functional schools – 2 Government Day Junior Secondary Schools and 20 primary schools, one of which is nomadic. There are 122 teaching staff in both the basic and junior secondary schools in the district. Out of this number, 67 are volunteers earning no salary or allowances from the government.

In the year 2021, a total number of 6,127 pupils were enrolled in primary schools in the district, and of this number 50.66 percent were boys and 49.34 percent were girls.

In each of the schools visited, there was an average of 279 pupils.

Many more parents and guardians are very much willing to enroll their wards and children but they are being discouraged by the way government is handling the issue of education in the state.

This suggests that the villagers are very much enthusiastic about acquiring western education but government’s obvious nonchalant attitude towards the sector is not helping matters.

Recently, the state government issued a directive that all local government employees who have acquired additional qualification in education related fields such as NCE or B. Ed should be redeployed to teach in schools in the local government areas of their origin.

Our findings show that in Gulani local government area, this directive has been complied with, but we have discovered that those with NCE or B.Ed were posted to their wards, thereby creating a huge imbalance in the distribution of these qualified teachers across the local government area. Those with the said qualifications are mostly from Bumsa and Bularafa districts leaving Gulani district battling with unqualified teachers.

The recent intervention of a non-governmental organizations is a welcome development.

UNICEF, in collaboration with NTI, have organized training pogrammes leading to the award of NCE and Grade II certificate, respectively for those who have no background in the teaching profession. This will go a long way in  ameliorating the problem.

This suggests that teaching staff strength is quite below the minimum requirement for teachers in the state. Quality of teachers falls far below what is required based on the National Policy of Education.

As at the time of writing this piece, no member of the committee has ever visited the said local government area for the purpose of looking into the profiles of the teachers or interview them to ascertain their suitability or otherwise with the aim of putting the records straight. And the story is the same in almost all the 17 local government areas of the state.

A survey by the Yobe Economic Summit of 2008, posited that only 15 percent of teachers in primary schools in the state are qualified to teach. As at 2006 Yobe State didn’t meet the deadline given by the National Council on Education for all unqualified teachers to acquire NCE or PGDE. From 2006 to date we have been battling with non NCE teachers in our schools.

The committee saddled with the responsibility of repositioning the basic and secondary education in the state has a very herculean task before it. As at today, the committee has not visited those villages or even the local government area to ascertain the level of deterioration or damage done to the sub-sector, let alone to come up with a massive blueprint on how to tackle the problem.

The period between the date the state government declared state of emergency on basic and secondary education to the launching of an appeal fund to raise money for the project and to date, should have provided an ample time for serious minded fellows to have done something tangible to salvage the sector from total collapse.

The governor in his opening remarks at the appeal fund launch, stated that “Education is the collective responsibility of everyone.” If what the governor stated was anything to go by, why can’t we put heads together and salvage it?

There is the need for the committee to ensure the provision of accurate data on schools and manpower needs of the sector, ensure massive grass-roots mobilization on the responsibility of communities and community participation in education, as well as ensure the efficient, effective and judicious distribution of staff, infrastructure and investment in the sector across the state.

The need to also develop at least a 20-year blueprint for education in the state cannot be overemphasised towards providing all the necessary ingredients that will motivate qualified teachers to be retained, Andrew fashion out policies and programmes that will attract others to the teaching profession consistent with other states of the country.

Furthermore, revisiting Mammnan Ali’s policy on education in the state should be seen and implemented as a necessity by giving free hand to the management of Tulip International College, Yobe, to conduct interviews to enroll qualified Yobe indigines into the college.

There is, presently, an undue interference by the coordinating ministry in the conduct and enrolment of students into the college. This undue interference is, of course, affecting the output of the schools.

The alleged N1.4 billion owed contractors handling school feeding in the state is another area that deserves the attention of the education committee to look into with a view to resolving the impasse amicably before it degenerates into something beyond control and comprehension.

Saleh, can be reached through: Bappandada1@gmail.com or 08033499812