How Yobe governor is fighting illiteracy

Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe state recently declared state ofemergency on education. MUSA M BUBA writes on how the governor intends to eradicate illiteracy in the state.

Education is said to be the bedrock of meaningful development in every society, state or nation.  Since Yobe state was carved out offormer Borno in August, 1991, it had been battling on how best to upgrade the standard of education at the primary, secondary and
tertiary levels.

The initial set-back
While efforts were under way to boost the education sector, suddenly, the menace of Boko Haram insurgency which has the ideology of neglecting the western education came in thereby creating much havoc in the education sector.
The result was that schools, at all levels across the state, were being burnt down every
day; students massacred through suicide bombing and others killed with guns. The abduction of girls from boarding schools also created fear in the hearts of parents. The one that drew the world’s attention was the abduction of 110 school girls of Government Girls Science Technical College Dapchi by the insurgents on February 19, 2018 of which up till this day, a Christian girl by the name Leah Sharibu is still in captivity.
The administration of the immediate past governor of the state hadrebuilt most of the schools with help from non-governmental
organisations like the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Victim
Support Funds (VSF) among others, yet there are still challenges in the state.

State of emergency in the sector
The incumbent governor, Mai Mala Buni, however, during his inauguration on May 29, 2019 declared a state of emergency in the sector both primary and secondary levels.

According to him, “This approach would be replicated in the secondary education sector;
we will equally make teaching profession attractive and education more functional.
“In view of the great loss suffered by the education sector frominsurgency, the state government would partner and seek for special
intervention from the Federal Ministry of Education, the Universal
Basic Education Trust Fund (TET Fund), philanthropists andinternational organisations to support us in our commitment to
rebuilding education in the state.

“In line with our commitment to reform the education sector, I hereby declare a state of  emergency on primary and secondary education in the state to build a solid, vibrant and robust foundation for the development of education. Government would as a matter of deliberate policy continue to provide the necessary support to move education in
the state to greater heights,” he said.

Adoption of bottom-up approach 
Having declared state of emergency on education and set the ballrolling, a round-table meeting with local government chairmen,
education secretaries and principals, among other stakeholders, was held to identify problems of basic education and work towards
addressing them.
The meeting was also to put machinery in place for convening education summit where stakeholders and groups could key
in to proffer solutions towards moving the sector forward.

Visit to orphanage schools
In order to give hope to orphans in the state whom parents were killed in the wake of insurgency, the governor visited YETIM Orphanage Centre in order to give them sucour. Buni, on arrival, said taking care of orphans is a collective responsibility which should not be shunned by individuals.

He said, “Orphans are our children of which we must give them a sense of belonging
by catering for their needs and that cannot be done by government
alone; it’s a collective responsibility,” he had said.

The governor therefore increased the monthly running cost of the orphanage home from
N500,000 to N1,000,000 and pledged to construct a hostel and aclassroom for them.
He also visited a primary school in Buni yadi with the aim of boosting and inculcating educational habits in the people despite the setbacks.

Education summit
Governor Mai Mala Buni while declaring opne the summit on education recently, said the reason behind the declaration of state of emergency on the sector was because the performance of majority of Yobe students in
various national examinations, including SSCE and NECO, has not been impressive.

The other reason, he noted, was because of the often-dismal performance of students at the primary and secondary school levels. Yobe had remained unable to fill its quota in various institutions of learning and in
significant areas of specialisation, such as Medicine, ComputerScience, and Engineering.

He said further that it was as result of the state’s quest to produceindigenous professionals who will provide the much-needed socialservices that generated the need for the summit.
Therefore, looking at the whole challenges, the government thought of revitalising
education, noting that money alone cannot solve the problem but the willingness of parents to allow their children to enroll to schools.

Civil society partners
According to a memo made available to state response committee on emergency in education by Faruk Chiromari, a civil society partner, there is need for total overhaul of the education sector if the emergency on education must yield results.

“The leadership of education ministry and its agencies need to be
reviewed and be steadfast towards achieving excellence. The number of qualified teachers should be checked, their welfare and training
especially those posted to rural areas must be looked upon.

“Strong supervision and monitoring team should be put in place apart from renovation, reconstruction, maintenance and replacement of obsolete teaching aids.
“In order to checkmate all education activities, government needs to establish complain, feedback and response mechanism for schools while schools in the crises areas should be converted to day schools to avoid tragedy,” it noted.
The summit which was held recently had the former vice chancellor, University of Maiduguri, among other academia, as one of those who brainstormed to produce the blueprint.