MODDIBO VISITS UBE PROJECTS IN NORTH-EAST, PRAISES JIGAWA

• L-R: Mr. Olaniyi Ojo, Vice Principal, Commission Programme, and Mr. Olorunfunmi Olugbemiga, Vice Principal External Programme, with Mr. Michael Dosunmu, Managing Director, Westfield College, addressing journalists on the recent development of the college and the maiden graduation ceremony of the school in Lagos recently.

The Executive Secretary of Universal Basic Education Commission, Dr. Ahmed Modibbo Mohammed, has commended Jigawa State Government for accessing its 2011 fund and also for embarking on silent revolution in basic education. He said the commission would continue to encourage states like Jigawa to be top-performing, as he called on other states to emulate Jigawa State.

Responding, the Governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Sule Lamido, said education remained the only key that opened human civilisation. He said his administration believed in collaboration, adding that he would collaborate with the commission for effective implementation of UBE projects in the state.

He lamented that present leaders had neglected their roles and that was why the youths were being led into social vices.

The governor also appealed to the management of the commission to liberalise the conditions of accessing the funds, adding that he wanted Jigawa State to be a reference point. Some of the projects visited by the executive secretary and his team in Jigawa State were:

Tsangaya Boarding School Gantsa for Almajiri Programme, School for the Gifted at Bamaina Primary School, Fatara Primary & Junior School and Dundubus Primary & Junior School.

In a similar development, the Governor of Yobe State, Alhaji Ibrahim Geidam, has said the state government would henceforth pay its counterpart fund promptly to access the UBE fund o fast-track its educational development. He warned that no state could make meaningful progress in development without a sound educational foundation.

According to him, despite the poor revenue base of the state, the state government had spent over 26 per cent of its annual budget on the education sub-sector. He stressed that when he assumed office in 2007, the pupils' performance in Junior Secondary School Certificate was declining progressively because of shortage of personnel but his government decided to address the situation immediately by engaging qualified teachers.

The governor also made it clear that the state government had started a partnership with the management of Turkish International College to boost the educational standard of its pupils and students in the state, adding that the state government was paying the school fees of all the children that meet up the criteria for the selection.

He informed the executive secretary that the state government had also built one modern boarding primary school in each local government area and that the primary schools were equipped with all the essential facilities.

To boost primary education in the state, the governor said the state government had procured vehicles for each of the Local Government Education Authorities and seven zonal offices as well as classroom furniture, among others.

Earlier in his speech, Modibbo said he was in the state to inspect ongoing UBE projects.

'We have been discussing with your SUBEB on the need to fast-track the accessing of educationally disadvantage fund lying down in the commission, which has no counterpart fund,' he said.

Some of the projects visited in Yobe State were Kukareta Model Primary School, Abbari Primary School, Bungari Primary School, and Boarding Model Primary School Jakusko, among others.