How long is it going to take Yobe state and Governor Mai Mala Buni’s zigzag map to improve the education l standard in the state? A state of emergency on education was introduced in 2019 as part of the so-called administration’s efforts to address the challenges in the education sector.
Consequently Governor Buni recently organised a gigantic campaign in Abuja with the aim of “Appeal Fund on Educational Development in Yobe State”. Members of the public service, business moguls, and other private agencies from all levels across Nigeria collectively contributed to encourage the welcome development.
Unfortunately, since then, neither the governor nor the school buildings made any echo from the resulting billions of Naira raised in the name of the Appeal Fund for reconstruction and planning a greater future.
Frankly, the public schools of Yobe state have continued to collapse from the effect of lacking upgraded learning materials, a minimum number of teachers, dilapidated buildings, along with hopeless students and parents who continue to lose interest in enrolling their wards in public schools. Examples of such schools are seen around the capital and local areas of Yobe state. A simple example is Arikime Primary School in Potiskum, a school with nearly 20,000 students and fewer than 40 teachers.
Unfortunately, the number of students receiving letters of transfer to private schools and the ones dropping out indefinitely has been threatening the educational standards of the state. He, Governor Buni, should have to confront this challenge by reviewing the counter threat faced by the education sector because people are physically and emotionally exhausted with what they keep experiencing of poor academic performance of their children and are patiently awaiting to witness the governor’s fulfil his promises of better education for the state.
However, the Yobe State Scholarship Board should roll over the pending release of funds meant for indigenous students of Yobe state in some higher institutions across the country. They had paid the least percentage of the students in universities, polytechnics, and colleges. That was a commendable effort on the other hand, but what kept them stranded from releasing the remaining funds approved for the rest of the higher institutions with the largest number of indigenous students in Yobe? Being a highly regarded and considerate board that has the responsibility of funding students, encouraging them to engage diligently in their academic routine, it’s pertinent to remind them about how hugely offering scholarships at appropriate times impacts the lives of students. Something should have to be solidly done to tie an unbreakable bond between students and how the Yobe State Scholarship Board plays hide-and-seek with public funds.
In a nutshell, the stakeholders responsible for handling the education sector in Yobe should wake up to their responsibilities as things fall thoroughly apart. The sector is very vital in promoting optical development. Meanwhile, the act of paying headless attention displayed by the government and its tail trail figureheads may seemingly ravage the remaining hopes of people over educational matters. It is not too late to revisit the whole issue and commence the search for specific ways of tackling it, accordingly.
Kasim Isa Muhammad,
Potiskum, Yobe state.
