Chima Azubuike, Gombe state.
…….Gombe to benefit from $6M BESDA education grant.
Gombe state Governor Inuwa Yahaya, has blamed the increasing number of out of school children to insurgency of Boko Haram and the positioning of the state in the centre of North East. He stated this recently when he played host to Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA ) delegation, a World Bank funded project which was led by Prof. Tahir Gidado, and a delegation of State Universal Basic Education Board at the council chambers.
He said “During the campaign we went round and what we saw is a sad story. Over the years there was serious neglect of basic education by those that benefitted from the system 100%.
“Regrettably those that benefitted from the system neglected and abandoned it to the extent that it took the efforts of President Buhari, Prof. Gidado, to see how they can revive the system.
” I’m not surprised when you said Gombe harbours 450,000-500,000 out of school children, if you also say it up to a million I won’t be surprised because no one can give you an empirical record that this is a clear number”.
“Gombe is in the centre of the North East, we share boundaries with all the states and with the scourge of Boko Haram, insurgency the number of those that relocated to the state can not be known they settled in the metropolis. They settled in an uncoordinated settlement, no plan, no provision was made for them to go to school, for hospital or any other facility that a human being will need in other to develop. A state that was 1.2 Million in 1996 when it was created now harbours 3.5 Million”.
Prof. Tahir Gidado, in his remarks stressed the need for state governments to invest in education ” Better Education Service Delivery for All was developed by the federal ministry of Education, it was established with the realisation of the huge number of children that are out of school. This programme is designed in such a way that before we give you money you must show result, you need to invest your money by bringing the children to school. All in all you will get 6million US Dollars which will come in two batches of 3million Us Dollars. “The education ministry has the supervision role while SUBEB is supposed to implement. I want to beg you, your Excellency, to pay close attention to this two agencies in the implementation of this project “he noted.
The Governor also decried the performance of the state in secondary school examination during the immediate past administration
“In the last 7 years, Gombe has been coming 34th in the placement examination in NECO and SSCE” Inuwa added.