Governor Darius Ishaku of Taraba state said Wednesday that his administration prioritise the revitalisation of education because it is a springboard for rapid development of the state and its people.The governor said this when he received a delegation from Blueprint newspaper at the state government’s lodge in Abuja.He said without quality education, little can be achieved in the socio-development of the people.

The governor said he inherited an education sector in Taraba that that was completely in comatose when his administration was inaugurated in 2015.“When we came on board in 2015, education was law in terms of performance, infrastructure and enrollment. WAEC performance was less than 20 percent. Most of the schools had no basic infrastructure and students’ enrollment was very poor because people were sending their children to schools in neighbouring states.

“As an architect and lecturer, when I assumed duty as the governor of Taraba state, we embarked on a serious restructuring of our schools to make the environment safe and conducive for learning.“We transformed the school system within few months that we stated seeing some dramatic changes in performance of students in WAEC from less than 20 percent in 2015 to 63 per cent in 2016, 73.5 percent in 2017, and 85.4 percent in 2019.
“In fact, Taraba state became number one in the northeast in 2017 and number one in the whole north in 2019.“One of the things responsible for the successful transformation of the education sector in Taraba state was the employment of 3000 teachers in one day. We call them ‘rescue teachers,” he said.

The governor also commended the l management and staff of Blueprint newspaper for considering him worthy of an award based on the state government’s intervention in the education sector.