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In a move to rescue all the government-owned schools and provide employment opportunities for the teeming graduate unemployed youths, Gombe State Governor, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya recently granted approval to the Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC) for the recruitment of 1,000 fresh teachers.
After the employment processes were completed and the teachers employed, the Governor, on Saturday, performed the official symbolic presentation of appointment letters to the 1000 secondary school teachers.
The move, by the administration, is meant to bolster the manpower needs in the education sector as well as improve the standards of teaching and learning across the schools.
While performing the ceremony at the Banquet Hall of the Government House, the Governor described education as the bedrock on which all progress and development rest, observing that any society or nation that seeks transformation, growth, prosperity, and stability must ensure quality and affordable education at all levels.
Inuwa Yahaya also explained that the presentation of the appointment letters to the 1,000 newly recruited teachers and the 288 that were transferred from Local Government Education Authority to the Ministry of Education, followed a painstaking and rigorous exercise by the Teachers Service Commission, TSC.
To this end, the Governor used the occasion to commend the TSC for organizing an induction event, which aims to prepare the minds of and familiarise the new appointees with the enormous task of repositioning the state’s education sector in order to keep pace with the 21st-century challenges and realities, in accordance with the promise made to the people.
He congratulated the newly appointed teachers on their successes throughout the recruitment processes, which included online registration, Data-Based Examination and Physical Interview conducted by the TSC.
According to him, “As we are all aware, education is the bedrock on which all progress and development rest. Therefore, any society or nation that seeks transformation, growth, development, and stability must ensure quality and affordable education at all levels. Because of this, I pledged that if elected, I would holistically confront the numerous challenges facing the education sector”.
The Governor also said that following his election in 2019, his administration conducted a Needs Assessment study that revealed a number of shocking issues affecting the education sector.
He said that findings by the needs assessment team revealed that most schools, especially in rural areas, lacked trained teachers, as over 32% of teachers in primary schools did not have the minimum teaching qualification (NCE), so also many schools in the state were without essential teaching and learning facilities.
He said that, “Another challenge we inherited, is 48% out-of-school children, one of the highest in the country. A rapid decline in primary school net attendance rates from 55.5% in 2008 to 40.5% in 2018 is one indicator of this worrying trend. Similarly, the enrolment rate in secondary schools was below the national average.”
“Consequently, our students consistently ranked among the bottom 3 in the federation in WAEC, NECO, and JAMB national examinations. Also, among all the 36 states of the federation and the FCT, we had one of the lowest enrolment rates into higher education,” he lamented.
The Governor remarked that in order to fulfil his campaign promise to the people of the state, his administration took unprecedented and aggressive measures to revamp the sector through the declaration of a state of emergency followed by a 60% increase in capital allocation in the 2020 and 2021 budgets.
He revealed that as a result of these interventions over 1,327 classrooms were built or renovated, furnished and equipped, in addition to computer and science laboratories, sporting and wash facilities were provided in hundreds of schools throughout the state.
Inuwa Yahaya said that, “Moreover, five secondary schools are being completely renovated, equipped and upgraded to Mega Colleges. This is adjudged as the biggest infrastructural renewal in primary and secondary schools in the history of Gombe State”.
The Governor further said that, “We also tackled the menace of out-of-school children by mopping up hundreds of thousands of children from the streets through the BESDA programme. We also established hundreds of girl-child learning centres and commenced the construction of modern tsangaya schools across the state, one of which is the recently commissioned Gwani Sani Modern Tsangaya School. Another five similar modern tsangaya schools in the state will be established soon”.
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