By Adewole Kehinde
“Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” — Malcolm Forbes
Since taking office about four years ago, Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe has made it abundantly clear that the state’s education sector, particularly at the primary level, was in disarray and that his administration would do everything possible to correct the rot. The sector was ravaged by inadequate infrastructure, a large number of out-of-school children, and a lack of instructional materials, and basic facilities.
Recognising the gravity of these challenges, the Gombe State government, led by Governor Yahaya, declared a state of emergency in education as a deliberate and conscious policy aimed at repositioning the sector for better, more effective, and efficient teaching and learning.
The declaration of a state of emergency in education in Gombe State marked a sudden shift from a narrow window dressing to a broad and holistic approach to addressing the numerous challenges confronting the sector, particularly at the basic level, which is perhaps the most critical stage in human development.
Today, five years into Governor Yahaya’s administration, the situation in the education sector, particularly at the primary level, is gradually and steadily improving, to the benefit of the younger generation. Aside from significant school and staff quarter building, repair, and remodelling, the Gombe State government has also created a state-of-the-art Teachers Resource Centre (TRC) in Kwami, the first of its type in the North-East sub-region, for teacher training and retraining.
As of September 2023, the Gombe State Government has declared that no fewer than 350,000 out-of-school children have been mopped up in the last four years of the first tenure of the present administration and sent back to school.
Meanwhile, I gathered that the Better Education Service Delivery for All programme has provided opportunities for children who were hitherto denied access to education due to poverty, displacement, and other factors.
The programme in Gombe State has provided opportunities for the enrollment of over 250,000 children in public schools, with over 100,000 enrolled in primary and junior secondary schools.
The state government has also provided training and capacity building for teachers in order to improve the quality of education, just as it further provided the children with a conducive environment for learning.
It also recruited 1000 teachers through the state’s Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC) to address the human resource gap in the education sector.
Recall that the rate of out-of-school children in Nigeria has been a source of concern for the government at all levels and stakeholders in the education sector across states in the country.
In response to the menace, the Federal Government launched the Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) programme to improve access to quality education in the country.
BESDA is a World Bank-funded programme that aims to reduce the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria. It was launched in 2018 and is being implemented in 17 states across the country. Gombe is one of the states that benefited from the BESDA programme.
In Gombe State, the BESDA implementation has made significant progress in mopping up out-of-school children.
Indeed, the political will demonstrated thus far by Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya’s administration in repositioning the education sector will not only improve the quality of teaching and learning in schools across the state but will also go down in history as evidence that one Chief Executive came, saw, and conquered the myriad of challenges confronting the education sector in Gombe State.
Adewole Kehinde is the publisher of Swift Reporters and can be reached at 08166240846. E-mail: kennyadewole@gmail.com
