Jalaluddin Usman
Education plays a strategic role in producing the new generation that would help in solving the numerous problems bedevilling our society. A lot of people are mostly concerned about basic education, while some only go extra mile to get secondary or tertiary education in order to meet the demands of the contemporary society. They sacrifice their time and resources just to reach that level of education because they realize the ultimate goal and key to achieving a better future is through education.
Education is one of the most powerful weapons for change. It is essential in protecting and empowering society.
The goal of education is to provide access to a better future as well as skills and to curb moral decadence. Crucial to the development of the society, Bauchi State Government considers education as its key area of interest which is why it is investing heavily in the sector.
Delivery of free and quality education to the teeming pupils and students in its schools is sure an important means of ensuring a better Bauchi State. It is therefore, a welcome development that the government and other critical stakeholders are investing huge resources towards full revitalization of the sector.
Isyaku Rabiu University inaugurates governing council
The emergence of Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed (Kauran Bauchi) as the state’s number one citizen has changed the negative narratives of education through his revolutionary salvation of the sector. In just the span of less than four years, Bala Muhammad has succeeded in removing Bauchi State from the so-called “cluster of educationally backward states.”
Hundreds of qualified exited teachers under Federal Teachers Scheme (FST) and the Federal Female Teachers Scheme (FTTS) were engaged into the state teaching service to augment the existing capacity.
Hundreds of schools were renovated, hundreds of new ones built and equipped with necessary learning tools to ensure a conducive learning environment for children across the state. Therefore, these giant strides have resulted in high school enrollment at all educational levels in the state.
To ensure full school enrollment, the administration of Sen. Bala Mohammed through its altruistic and benevolent policy augmented and approved the payment of 299,388,000 Naira for the 2023 National Examination Council (NECO) exams to 12,999 index students across the entire public Senior Secondary Schools including Special Schools, Technical Schools and Islamic Colleges across the state. Unlike in the previous years, the number of the beneficiary students has distinctly increased, and so, demonstrated the present administration’s commitment towards the delivery of free and quality education.
The State’s Commissioner of Education, Dr. Jamila Muhammad Dahiru has in one of the fora disclosed the Governor’s magnanimity and kind consideration by approving the release of additional 15,000,000 Naira for the payment of UTME exams to 2,365 candidates who passed the mock examination recently conducted by the ministry under her stewardship.
The administration of Governor Bala Mohammed had already cleared a backlog of NECO fees of over 800,000,000 million Naira inherited from previous governments.
In the words of the Commissioner, Governor Bala Mohammed’s administration would continue to pay and settle the backlog of monies, fees and entitlements in the education sector towards securing the future of the younger generation and for a better Bauchi state.
All these are in addition to the efforts being made to better the condition of teachers and the students as a whole.
It is pertinent to note that approval by the Governor to establish the State Emirate Council Committee on Education is also part of new education policy of reducing the rate of out of school children in the state.
The committee is charged with the responsibility of collaborating with all critical stakeholders in the education sector to create grassroot level awareness for improved enrollment of school-age children and educational access to young people across the state.
In light of the aforementioned special interventions, a grand sum of 1,114,388,000 (one billion one hundred and fourteen million and three hundred and eighty eight thousand Naira) was fairly invested for maximum reactivation of the education sector.
Therefore, it is safe to say parents would now have more courage to send their children and wards to school, because seeing is believing.
Jalaludeen Usman
Faizu Idris Ibrahim
