From Fred Itua, Abuja
Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe unveiled on Thursday his education policy in the state while revealing projects already executed by his administration.
The governor disclosed that his administration has constructed and renovated over 300 schools, established six Model schools and seven mega schools across the state.
Governor Buni made the disclosure at the Yobe State Education Fund Raising with the theme, “Revitalising Education in Yobe State,” held in Abuja.
The governor also revealed that the state government has procured textbooks and laboratory equipment worth N1 billion and has supplied class and office furniture worth over N1 billion to create a conducive atmosphere for learning and teaching in schools.
Buni said his administration has trained and retrained about 10,000 teachers to improve their capacity on teaching methodology to impact knowledge and skills efficiently and effectively.
According to him, the state government is employing more qualified teachers to man the schools.
He said: “This administration has also taken deliberate measures to enrich the school feeding programme and recently, we introduced chicken and eggs on the school menu to ensure that no student abandons school due to lack of feeding.
”Our investment in education in the last two years has paid off handsomely. Our students’ performances in national examinations have improved tremendously with more qualified candidates to exhaust the state’s admission quota in tertiary institutions.”
Buni hailed hlPresident Muhammadu Buhari and the security agencies for the commitment and resilience in fighting insurgency to give Yobe the desired peace and security to rebuild education.
“I also wish to appreciate the federal government, our development partners and the World Bank for supporting our efforts to revitalize education in Yobe State.
“However, the enormity of the task to rejuvenate education in the state is far beyond the traditional Treasury capacity of Yobe State, even as we put forward our best efforts.
“Consequent to this challenge, we decided to approach your good selves, our potential benefactors, through this education fundraising event to seek your support, in cash or in-kind of endowment seed fund to an estimated value of N25 billion.
”This will go a long way to help us satisfactorily sustain the delivery of the work we have set out to achieve,” Buni said.
He explained that the fundraising would enable the state to develop and maintain a high standard of education philosophy; education policy; legal, regulatory, and institutional arrangement in the Basic and Secondary Education sub-sector.
He also said that the fund would help the state eliminate the problem of out-of-school children; maintain the highest standard of enrolment, attendance, and retention with special attention to girls’ education.
“The fund will also improve the adequacy in quality and quantity of teachers and para-teaching personnel among others,” he said.
Also, President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawal, commended Buni for according priority attention to education and effort toward enhancing the quality of education in the state.