The Gombe State commissioner for education, Hajiya Aishatu Mohammed Bose Ahmed, is determined to overhaul the education sector in the state. In this interview with HUSSAINI JIRGI, Hajiya Ahmed, who also served in the same ministry during the tenure of ex-governor, Danjuma Goje, says the revolution is aimed at repositioning Gombe State and making it a model in the country.
What informed this administration’s transformation agenda in the education sector in Gombe State?
I will start by giving you an insight into the way and manner the governor studied the situation when he came on board and the emergency nature of his response, which led to the transformation that everyone is talking about now.
When he assumed duty he decided to take a tour of the schools in Gombe State and he went to most of the primary and post primary schools around all the zones in the state. He was everywhere in Gombe city, in Billiri, in Doma, in Kumo, in Gabukka, in Herwagana.
And everywhere he visited he made it a point of duty to see for himself the deterioration in both primary and post primary schools. I must tell you in all sincerity that at each school, he stood there and was, for most of the time, speechless. The entourage was surprised to see the governor shedding tears at the serious dilapidation of all the structures.
He noticed that most schools were over-crowded—-150 to 180 students or pupils were sitting in a class being taught by just one teacher. That really moved him and he decided to give priority to the education sector.
You are aware that the governor, on assumption of office, decided to set up sectorial committees to look at specific and key areas and make recommendations considering the existing situations on ground. The report we got from the sectorial committees on education was very revealing and touching.
In the senior secondary schools for example, we have a shortfall of over 3, 000 teachers in the state. The governor wondered aloud whether we are actually teaching or cheating the students and pupils in Gombe State. To that effect, the recommendation of the committee was that we should employ 1, 000 teachers this year, 1, 000 next year and another 1, 000 the third year to meet the shortfall.
Right now, the governor has approved for the Teachers Service Commission and the Ministry of Education to employ 1,000 teachers for the senior secondary schools and 1, 000 teachers for primary schools.? Also, based on the recommendation when we were sworn into office in December, every commissioner was given a blueprint and action plan by the governor. The marching order was for us to hit the ground running and to ensure a complete turnaround.
In education, the governor was clear in his desire and commitment to have a complete rehabilitation and overhaul of the education sector.
The situation before this turnaround was pathetic such that at one time in the past we hit newspaper headlines when we recorded just 19 students who met the requirement for admission into universities in our NECO examinations. But as you can see now, we are on the match into a new and pleasant era.
It is interesting to hear that you are employing more teachers; are there strict criteria to ensure that the right manpower is employed?
The governor stated categorically that we should employ only qualified (professional) graduate teachers in senior secondary schools. The same thing applies to the primary school level where the minimum qualification is NCE.
How many schools are on your list for a turnaround?
For this year alone, the governor has slated 15 senior secondary schools and 15 primary schools for complete overhaul across the state. We are halfway into the year, but already we are working on 9 schools in the senior secondary schools as well as in the primary schools; and at this rate we are likely to finish it before the turn of the year. As we are talking, the governor has earmarked 12 other secondary schools for another overhaul.
Much has been achieved in less than one year of your administration; what do we expect in the next three years?
What we have in mind is that at the end of the first four years we will have as many schools as are required to give every child the opportunity to attend a school worth its name in an environment that is learning-friendly. We want to expose them to the most competitive teaching equipment so that the same quality that was churned out in those days would be re-enacted.
You can see that we are on top of the situation, we know our onions, we know the problems and we have applied the right methodology to cure the illness in the sector. The fact that everyone that comes into Gombe is full of accolades for us means that we are on the path to changing things positively.
What about the number of students and pupils in classes, which you admitted was also a setback?
That too has been dealt with. Of course this is a problem that must also go along with the speed at which we want to finish and put the new schools into use. The governor has already directed that not more than 1, 500 students should be in a Day Secondary School and 1, 000 only in boarding schools.
What we have presently is that in most of the boarding schools, you find more than 2, 000 students per school. At the same time, it has become a policy that we should not have more than 40 students in a class. Our response to what has become an emergency situation has been holistic and broad, and the intent is to address the root cause of the problem and deal with it appropriately.
What measures are you going to take to address the poor feeding system in boarding schools?
The committee has addressed that issue as well, and the recommendation is that we should improve on what we are doing now. We have already been able to improve it 100 per cent. The committee has, despite the level we have attained, further advised that we should recap it to 100 per cent more.
There will be further improvement. I will like to inform you that we have a standing feeding committee that is saddled with the responsibility of going round the schools to inspect and taste the food that our students eat. I have equally taken the personal initiative to also go round the schools at meal time and unexpected to see and also eat the food myself to be sure that it is up to standard.
And I am happy to report that I have not found any fault or any case of underfeeding. Two days ago I had cause to undertake such visits to some of the schools on similar assignment.
How do you get the communities involved in running the schools?
We have school/community management committees in all the schools and they are involved in running them. Meetings of these committees are held periodically, and the ministry always sees to it that recommendations by such committees are looked into with dispatch in order to ensure that the stakeholders and host communities play their part in moulding our future leaders into responsible citizens.
We are aware that several factors, including shortcomings, mainly from the government, have eroded all the gains in the education sector as envisaged by our forefathers. The sector has suffered years of neglect in the hand of previous governments. I can give you some examples. In the last dispensation, within eight years, only N1.3billion was spent on capital projects in the Ministry of Education.
But the present governor has spent a total of N3.8billion on the same capital projects within four months. We have already exhausted our capital within the budget, and efforts are on to make provisional budget for the sector. This tells you that this government is serious about developing the sector and that no stone will be left unturned to remedy the situation to save our state from complete breakdown in this sector.
How has the issue of girl-child education been handled in Gombe State?
I must confess that my coming to the Ministry of Education was aimed primarily at making me serve as a model to our teeming girls. We want to set the example that education for the girl-child is in sync with modern trends; and it has its advantages for the individual and the community as a whole.
It was the first time that a woman was made a commissioner in the Ministry of Education. All the commissioners, right from the old Bauchi State, have been men.
When I was made a commissioner in the last dispensation, the then governor made it clear that the essence was to make a model out of me for the girls. So when I came on board I decided to be going round villages to interact with girls, their parents and community leaders.
Ironically, majority of the people who have this apathy towards education happen to be from my own tribe of Fulani, so I could speak to them in the language they understand.
I can tell you that we really have a lot of improvement in terms of enrolment of girls into schools. If you add the gargantuan and unprecedented commitment of the present governor in the way he has confronted the problem head on, then you will understand that every facet of the problem would be handled very well in no distant future.
Girl education in Gombe State is also free at all levels, and that is why we have improved enrolment of girls in the state up to the village level. We have also selected girls in the villages that have never had the opportunity to send girls to schools. We have quite a number to exchange schools across the North. You know we have this exchange programme in the North.
I will also like to reveal to you that the governor has approved the purchase of textbooks worth N500million based on the new senior secondary school curriculum. The intention is that every secondary school child should have comprehensive textbooks in all the subjects. Free notebooks too would be provided. The same thing will be done at the primary school level. Governor Dankwambo’s desire is to do to today’s student what was done to him during his time.
Libraries and laboratories are equally important in schools. What are you doing about them?
If you go round the schools we are building or renovating, you would notice that in the building plans provision has been made for libraries and laboratories. There is a deliberate plan to have well-equipped and well-stocked computer centres, libraries and laboratories in all our secondary schools. The provision of laboratories in schools in Gombe State is going to be unique.
No class will share a lab with any other class. Each class will have a dedicated laboratory to itself so that no class will have to wait for another to give way for it to access either a biology or chemistry, or physics laboratory.
Provision has also been made for creational and sports facilities in a deliberate policy to enhance sports and use such avenues to discover talents in football, athletics and other track events to make Gombe the place to look up to for national sporting talents. We have an eye on being in the front burner of national and regional sports events like the National Sports Festival or national leagues at the amateur and the professional levels. The idea is to develop intellectual and mental faculties of our youth.
We will also have a teacher professional development scheme that will focus on training and retraining of teachers. We have entered into an agreement with a university in Turkey, and right now we are on the verge of selecting the teachers at the secondary school level that would be sponsored to Turkey for the training. We have also entered into an agreement with the Federal Ministry of Education to have some professionals to come to Gombe and expose our teachers to new methodology and concepts.
About 20 primary school teachers have been sent to Korea for training and they have just returned. We are always responding to challenges that have stunted growth in the sector.
These challenges have been there for a long period of time, and while it may take time for us to deal with them, I will like to assure our people that we have not been overwhelmed by the apparent intractability of the hiccups.
We shall surmount them because we have the will, the fighting spirit, and the goodwill of our people, as well as the indefatigability of a team-playing leader who inspires and drives his subordinates to conquer challenges.