Gov Buni approves Implementation of Education Committee Report

In his inaugural address on the 29th of May, 2019, the governor had declared a State of Emergency in Primary and Secondary Education in the state and he followed that up by hosting an Education Summit on the 1st of July following which a Technical Committee was set up under the chairmanship of Professor Malah Daura, a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Maiduguri.

Not done with that, the governor went on to provide Foreign Scholarships for 500 undergraduate and 200 post graduate students.

Just before he left for Hajj, the governor received the report of the Technical Committee primarily set up to revitalize Basic and Secondary Education in the State and after studying it, has now approved for its implementation.

While the full recommendations of the Committee will be implemented over time through various education sector agencies in coordination with the office of the Secretary to the State Government, His Excellency Governor Buni has approved that the following be undertaken immediately:

• A manpower audit to screen all teaching staff across the state, authenticate their certificates and the forms or types of formal training they had gone through.

• Conduct of basic, general and professional competency tests on teachers in the state.

• Identification of teachers who need training, re-training or re-assigning to other sectors as appropriate and how to fill in any gaps that may arise.

• Identification of additional qualified teachers for recruitment at all levels of the school system.

• Establishment of one model school for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education in each of the three senatorial districts of the state. Three existing schools will be converted for this purpose and a steering committee that has already been set up will work to formalise arrangements for conversion of the schools and the conduct of needs assessment to meet immediate take off requirements.

The schools earmarked for STEM education are Government Secondary School Damaturu (Zone A), Government Science and Technical College Potiskum (Zone B) and Government Science and Technical College Nguru (Zone C).