BY NDAHI MARAMA, MAIDUGURI

PRIOR to Governor Kashim Shettima’s emergence as the duly elected number one citizen of Borno State, the education sector was peaceful but unfortunately, dilapidated due to neglect by the previous administration.
This means that there were no structures nor teachers left  for Boko Haram to target.

TERROR ATTACK—Gov. Kashim Shettima of Borno State,inspecting burnt properties, including schools after attack by a terror group in the state.

Public and Private schools in the state were operating in a peaceful environment with nobody ever envisaging that the peace  enjoyed by the schools will be truncated.
When Shettima took over the mantle of leadership, schools – government and private – were no longer safe as over 800 blocks were destroyed by insurgents.

On 14th April, 2014, a group of terrorists invaded Chibok and abducted more than 200 school girls who were writing their final paper of the S.S.C.E exams at the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok town, a situation that has generated outcry, particularly from the international community.

Knowing that the state’s education sector has suffered untold neglect in the past which led to poverty and emergence of Boko Haram insurgency, Shettima vowed to make sure that his administration accorded more priority to the sector.

Unfortunately, Vanguard Learning observed that all necessary effort and resources put in place by the present administration to achieve that ended up worsening the precarious situation, as almost all government schools remained closed since Chibok school girls’ attack in April to date.

“If we all passed through public schools, eating good food, wearing good uniforms, having textbooks, sleeping in good hostels, having good teachers and so on, I see no reason why as your Governor, I will not explore better options to address the rot in the education sector.” These are the popular words of Governor Shettima whenever he inspected public schools in the state.

To take the bull by the horn and help in reducing insecurity, youth restiveness and other crimes perpetrated out of frustration and hunger, Shettima’s administration set up a high powered committee headed by an educationist and  former school principal, Honourable Inuwa Kubo Shani, now the Commissioner for Education, to bring out a Work Plan on how to revive the sector.

Shettima also inaugurated Borno State Teaching Service Board to cleanse secondary schools by replacing any principal believed to be doing badly, including any of his relations serving in that capacity in any of the 83 schools in the state.

Reasonable measures
After inaugurating the Committee under the chairmanship of Alhaji Jidda Shuwa, Shettima pledged not to interfere with whatever reasonable measures were taken by the Board with a view to sanitizing secondary education system in the state.

“Borno is bigger than any one of us, no matter our primordial interest; we cannot sacrifice the future of Borno children because of any principal that is related to me or any government official.

“Like you have said, there are principals that have been in the same school for over 20 years, transfer them at will if you find it necessary, replace them if you find that necessary but be fair and objective to reward those that are doing very well.

“Whatever policy you can introduce to instill discipline, recruit, train and promote deserving teachers and sanction erring ones to raise the standard of education, please go ahead, you have my full support and approval, I will never interfere with your job, I promise you that.

“Go and secure a good place for us to rent and relocate your offices because where your offices are is a terrible place, while we will swing into action to build   a new structure for you so that you will be strengthened for a long-term but you have to start work right away, ” Shettima said.

In his inaugural remark, chairman of the Board,   Jidda Shuwa recalled that in the last three years, the education sector has received adequate attention under Shettima, with most of the secondary schools either rehabilitated or being rehabilitated while monthly allocation of school feeding was reviewed from N20m to N100m, 40 teachers were sent for train-the-trainers course on electronic teaching aides in India as well as setting up of a task force to regularly carry out field monitoring and supervision of educational activities in the state. Jidda said the education sector had never received such a transformation since 1975.

Transforming education sector
He expressed appreciation to the Governor for giving them the opportunity to serve the state. The chairman assured the Governor that they will do everything possible to complement his effort in transforming the education sector in the state, adding that they will work according to the laws establishing the board.

The Board’s main focus will, among others, consider promotion, discipline and transfer of teachers, assuring the Governor that the  resources expended on education will be justified as everything will be based on merit.
Shettima, while trying to fulfill his promises to the people of the state, went an extra mile to access all the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Trust Funds which ran into billions of naira, and ordered for the total renovation of all public secondary and primary schools across the 27 local government areas of the state.

A screengrab taken on May 12, 2014, from a video of Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram obtained by AFP shows girls, wearing the full-length hijab and praying in an undisclosed rural location. Boko Haram released a new video on claiming to show the missing Nigerian schoolgirls, alleging they had converted to Islam and would not be released until all militant prisoners were freed. A total of 276 girls were abducted on April 14 from the northeastern town of Chibok, in Borno state, which has a sizeable Christian community. Some 223 are still missing.

Currently, more than 70 per cent of these public schools have benefited from the exercise.
Another measure Shettima had to embark upon when he assumed the mantle of leadership in 2011 was the declaration of state of emergency in the education sector by giving an order for the closure of Government College and Yerwa Girls Secondary school, Maiduguri, following the “inhabitable conditions and poor feeding” of students in the schools.

The closure order was made when the governor had an unscheduled visit and inspection of boarding secondary schools in Maiduguri metropolis before taking necessary measures against the alleged dilapidated state of the schools.

Shettima described the two schools as: “inhabitable for students to continue their classes with dilapidated structures and hunger.” Hence, he consequently directed the principals of the two institutions to proceed on an indefinite three months break, which commenced December 8th 2011 to March 7th same year. This, he explained, will enable contractors start renovations of the dilapidated affected schools. Already, these schools have been transformed into a citadel of learning as both students and staff was enjoying the atmosphere compared to the past, alas, these schools were among those closed due to insecurity.

Apart from this development as well as provision of instructional materials and furniture to schools across the state, Shettima’s administration introduced volunteer teacher’s scheme in all primary and post primary schools in the state in order to address the problem of decay and lack of qualified teachers in the state, unfortunately teachers continued to stay at home with their children not to even talk of volunteer teaching scheme.

‘’ There is no doubt that education is the priority of this government and all effort will be made to not only rehabilitate school infrastructures but also provide the required facilities and instructional materials for teaching and learning in our school system”. Governor Shettima said.

The governor who lamented on the deplorable condition of education in the state added that the state will seek for partnership with University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) to carry out the scheme aimed at revamping the lost glory of the sector. But all to no avail due to insecurity.

Governor Shettima who also painted a bad picture and total decay in the education sector lamented that in the last three years just two students passed the Senior Secondary Schools Examination (SSCE) in all the ten local government in northern part of the state. Pointing out that, even those two students that had only five Credits including Mathematics and English are not the indigene of the state, as their fathers according to investigation are from the South East and South West who are working under the federal government civil service in those Council areas.

He disclosed that he and members of his cabinet will go into discussion and come out with a master plan that will change the face of education of the state.

Shettima’s determination to improve the sector awarded contracts for the rehabilitation of nine secondary schools in the three senatorial districts of the state. This is in addition to the distribution of Science, laboratory equipments and instructional materials including mathematics and English text books to all secondary schools across the three senatorial districts of the state.

He said government carried out the complete rehabilitations of classrooms, laboratories, hostels and staff quarters in order to make teaching and learning more conducive and attractive to both teachers and students.

Shettima was quoted as saying when he paid an unscheduled visit to one of the secondary Schools in Maiduguri Metropolis last year that, “The students’ Hostels are no better than that of a prison yard; and this is unacceptable for my administration. Education is a right and not a privilege. We have to do what is right by making our schools more attractive and habitable, so that we can train the people that can take over from us,” said the governor, while lamenting on the poor state of secondary schools in the state.

It would be recalled that during the time of his predecessor, former Governor Ali Modu Sheriff, that administration was able to renovate some few public schools, but Shettima having not fully satisfied with the development on ground embarked on total overhauling of the sector by renovation of schools in three of the senatorial districts. The schools that benefited from the first phase include, Government College Maiduguri, Government Secondary Science School Bama, and Government Girls Secondary School Gajigana.

The second phase of the renovation work includes, Shehu Garbai Primary and secondary school, Government Secondary School Damboa, Government Girls Secondary School Biu, Government Girls Secondary School Bama, Govt. Girls Secondary School Baga, Govt. Secondary School Marama, Govt. Girls Secondary School Miringa and Govt. Girls Secondary School Lassa at the cost of N3.4 billion respectively.

Just last year, Shettima donated 30 buses for the transportation of school children to and from their schools in order to ease their transportation problems. These buses were now kept at the state mechanical workshop and Borno Express Terminus as the students were nowhere to be found for transporting them to schools.

The governor while commissioning, the buses at the Government House Maiduguri, said, this is his personal donation to enhance the development of education in the state.

He said “this is my mild contribution to the education sector, I personally bought this buses between the cost of $6000-9000 what government did was the replacement of new tyres.”

Shettima stated that the state government will replicate the same to the local government areas, if the pilot project within the metropolis is successful, and urged other government officials and elites to also contribute their own quota to the development of education in the state.

“ Most of us are products of public schools, which we enjoyed free education, feeding and other facilities and posterity will judge us harshly if we neglect the public schools, which are cheaper and within the reach of the poor.”, Shettima stated.

Earlier speaking, the state commissioner of education Comrade Musa Inuwa Kubo said the buses is to convey school children to and from their schools be it private or public school provided they are in their school uniforms.

He said the buses can convey 112 school children at a time and will be assigned to designated bus stops, stressing that the buses will be managed by the Borno Express Cooperation while the state ministry of education oversees them.

Hon. Kubo stated that the buses consist of 20 long buses and 10 medium sized buses, pointing out that the project will be replicated to the 27 local government areas depending on the workability of the pilot project within the Maiduguri Metropolitan and Jere Council Areas.

Kubo said “education is the pivot of any developmental drive of this administration, as such government is expending huge amount of money on education in the state. We have to change the ugly trend of education in Borno state; we can not afford to play with the destiny of our children, as they are the future leaders of tomorrow.”

He added that apart from renovation and construction of classroom blocks and staff quarters across public schools in the state, the state government also the fenced schools across the 27 local government areas of the state which has provide qualitative education to thousands of students in the state.

The commissioner said that the state governor also approved the upward review of the students feeding from N20 million to N100 million monthly to improve the feeding system of students in the state.

He said in addition to all these, the state government also spent over N3 billion on the procurement of text books, laboratory equipments and other instructional materials to all the schools in the state, adding that the sum of N302 million have also spent on the purchase of office and house furniture to teachers across the state..

Hon. Kubo further stated that due to the financial status of parents in the state, the state government has decided to relief parents through the settlement of N230 million on NECO and SSCE registration fee of students in both day and boarding secondary schools across the state.

However, all these effort of the present administration of governor Shettima appears to be in vain, as all schools remained closed and number one target of attack by the insurgents.