Governor Bala In Three Years: On Education (II) -By Sulaiman Maijama’a

As the saying goes “no society can develop beyond its level of education.” In order to resuscitate the lost glory of education in Bauchi, immediately he came in, Governor Bala through Commissioner of Education, Dr. Aliyu Tilde introduced digital attendance whereby fingerprint devices replaced attendance registry booklets. This was meant to easily track workers’ attendance and to discourage absenteeism among primary and secondary school teachers as well as weed out ghost workers.This development followed a discovery where about 53.5% of workers were found to exhibit truancy which had cost the education sector greatly.

Governor Bala also earlier in his first year, flagged off the disbursement of five Hundred Thousand Naira to each of the 1,320 schools in five Local Government Areas of the state, who are the beneficiaries of the Schools Improvement Project grants, a World Bank project. He also provided 6.7 hectares of land for the construction of Northeast UBEC Model School in Bauchi so as to fast track the execution of the project. And with the commitment of the governor towards overcoming the challenges facing the sector, Bauchi State Government secured the award of three million US Dollars for the implementation of Better Education Service Delivery for All, a federal government project

In order to provide condusive environment for teaching and learning, Senator Bala hit the ground running by embarking upon renovation of Primary, Junior and Senior Secondary Schools that were in dilapidated condition. Some of the renovated Schools within Bauchi metropolis include Baba Sidi Primary School, Dutsen Tanshi Primary School, GDSS Zannuwa, Dawaki Primary School, GDSS Kofar Wambai, Government Comprehensive Day Secondary School, GJSS Model Fadamar Mada among others across the State.

In Dass Local Government, Kagadama (A); Bagel Primary School; Baden (B) Primary School; Bagel (B), Galadima; Darussalam (B) and Kagadama (B) Primary School are among the schools renovated. Additionally, to ensure that women are not educationally lagged behind, women education centers in Kirfi, Katagum, Jama’are, Ningi, Dass and Misau local government areas, were renovated.

Similarly, renovation and construction of blocks of classrooms has taken place in various Primary Schools in Tafawa Balewa, Bogoro, Darazo, Gamawa, Tatagum, Ganjuwa, Misau, Dambam, Alkaleri, Toro, Kirfi, Warji, Shira, Zaki, Giade, Ningi and other local government areas across the state.

In the same vein, the governor has recently, through Bauchi State Scholarship Board, disbursed scholarship to indegene students of Bauchi state studying in tertiary institutions across the country. These are all a testimony to the passion and dedication of the Governor to education.

Maijama’a, Faculty of Communication, Bayero University, Kano.
sulaimanmaija@gmail.com