The Gombe State Deputy Governor, Dr Manassah Jatau, has called on the Federal Government and donor agencies for more intervention in the education sector of the state to further boost it.
According to a press statement issued by Senior Special Assistant to Gombe Governor office of Deputy Governor Jack Tasha, Jatau made the call on Thursday when he played host to a supervision team from the United States Agency for International Development Nigeria Mission on education in his office.
He said the present administration has prioritised education, stressing that with more support from the Federal Government and partners, the administration will do more exploits than its counterparts in the country.
He said, “Education is very important that is why when we came in to the government and met education in a dilapidated condition we declared a state of emergency in order to change the poor narrative. For instance, our students performance in WAEC and NECO used to be second to the last but we ensured that it is not like that today.
“Apart from reconstructing schools that were hitherto in poor condition, we were able to established five mega schools in the three senatorial districts which by September will be admitting not less than 3000 students.”
He restated government’s steadfastness to ensuring availability of quality learning materials across schools in the state which he said will aid in active learning and effective conveyance of information to students.
The Deputy Governor said most schools that were in deplorable conditions have been given a new look by the Inuwa Yahaya-led government, citing renovation of GSS Dadinkowa, adding that currently, Gombe state has up to five mega schools spread across the three senatorial district and the state capital all in an effort to uplift the standard of education in the state.
Jatau further stressed that Gombe state’s partnership with USAID and other partners have helped in changing the negative narrative, maintaining that the administration is set to enroll three thousand students in the next academic session.
The Deputy Governor expressed concern over the current economic realities, applauded USAID for upgrading the curriculum to tally with the prevailing situation.
While assuring that more teachers will be recruited soon, Jatau lamented on how the society considers teaching profession as a degrading job and challenged the teachers, especially those at the primary level to cherish their jobs and give it the prestige it deserves, reminding them that primary education is the foundation of all societal development.
“While government needs to employ more teachers, the teachers should restore the confidence of teaching profession. It doesn’t mean well for people to berate the teaching profession when it should be the pride of every teacher since they produce all the other professionals,” he said.
Earlier in a remark, the USAID Nigeria Mission Team Lead, Dr Nura Ibrahim,said the team is in the state on a routine supervision of its ongoing projects in the education sector.
He lauded the government’s developmental activities across sectors, with a particular emphasis on the declared state of emergency on basic education and the achievements of over seventy percent success in secondary school education, considered it as a commendable efforts.
According to him, following his team’s supervision, they discovered a class of about 80 students with one teacher and therefore called for increase in teacher recruitment to ease the burden on teachers.
Also, State2State Team Lead, Gombe State Mohammed Bello, commended the Gombe State Government for being well inclusive in its educational policies and for celebrating open governance partnership and doing a lot in spite the low federal allocation to the state.
