Guardian

Borno spends N227m on infrastructure

GOVERNORIbrahim Gaidam of Yobe state has declared a state of emergency in the state’s education sector. Citing poor management of secondary schools and other levels of the education sector in the state, Gaidam said the situation was no longer acceptable.

The governor, who made the declaration during an unscheduled visit to Government Girls’ College, Damaturu also attributed students’ mass failure in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in the state to the poor management of its secondary schools

His words: “I am very much saddened and disappointed with the state of dilapidated structures of this Girls’ College. How could these students learn and still perform well in their examinations, under this deplorable learning environment?”

He directed the state’s Commissioner for Education, Alhaji A. Musti to immediately submit estimates for the rehabilitation of all affected schools in the state.

The state’s Ministry of Education, according to him, is to be split into two for “effective and efficient” management of schools.

Gaidam lamented: “Year in year out, we keep having 10 or 15 per cent performance in the WASSCE and the NECO examinations. We will not tolerate that any longer. The knowledge gap between the children of the rich and that of the poor must be bridged, which was my vow during my electioneering campaign.”

Addressing the students in the assembly hall, he urged them to work hard, pledging to improve the learning environment and the quality of food being prepared for students.

Meanwhile, the Borno State Commissioner for Higher Education, Alhaji Bello Ayuba has disclosed that the state government has so far expended N227 million to improve the infrastructure of its tertiary institutions, to enable them satisfy the full accreditation requirements of the National Universities Commission (NUC), National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and the National Council for Colleges of Education (NCCE). The state’s College of Legal and Islamic Studies was also renovated at the cost of N550 million.

According to Ayuba who spoke at a briefing to commemorate Governor Kashim Shettima’s second year in office in Maiduguri, the technical department of Ramat Polytechnic, Maiduguri, is also being reconstructed and had reached 90 per cent completion.