Mohammed Laments Failed Education System in Bauchi

Segun Awofadeji in Bauchi

The Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed has lambasted the management of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) as well as the Local Government Education Authority (LGEA) secretaries for sabotaging his efforts at developing the educational sector of the state.

Mohammed was visibly angry when he spoke at the opening of a meeting with stakeholders in the education sector, including the SUBEB’s management, Ministry of Education, LGEA’s secretaries and local government areas’ caretaker chairmen that was held at the Banquet Hall of the Government House, Bauchi, yesterday.

The governor bemoaned the high number of out-of-school children in Bauchi State and the decline in standard of education, and accepted that his administration has failed the people of the state in terms of educational development.

According to the governor, “I was thinking loudly when I discussed with a few commissioners that included Education, Local Government Affairs and the Chief of Staff that we need to focus on education.

“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 5000 classrooms.

 “There are mega schools that have been left untouched; 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, the roofs are licking or blown off.

“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 this 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 is 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 roof have been blown off.

“One of the local government chairmen in 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 on well.

“I wonder where our education secretaries are in the scheme of things. The rate of attrition of teachers and schools is unbelievable.The numbers are showing high number of teachers but in reality, it is just one or two teachers, we only find volunteers. Something must be wrong with SUBEB and our system.

“And, the World Bank and UNICEF as well as other development partners are assisting us to develop the sector, but no positive results. We are regularly paying our counterpart grants. Just in 2022, we spent N3 billion but I can’t see what we have done with such amount, we spent N5 billion and N9 billion yet the schools are left like that. Definitely, something is wrong with the system.” 

The governor said: “Somebody is there or some people, sabotaging us. Today is not a tea party, I am not happy, before we declare state of emergency on education; we have to declare state of emergency on ourselves. We are not doing well, we are just pretending, all of us, stakeholders.

“I am not here to make money but I am here to make a difference. I went to an LEA school, Government Secondary School, state government’s university and I am competing comfortably with my colleagues from across the world. What are we bequeathing as a legacy to our future generations?

“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 not enumerated for renovation is no longer acceptable.”

According to the governor, “we know the numbers, some places where you are supposed to have large number of classes, you don’t have it. We must just try to strike a balance. Even some of the schools we renovated or built are not good enough.”

Governor Mohammed then said that he would not hesitate to shove away 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.