How Tambuwal improves education sector in Sokoto

Gbolahan Salman

On assumption of office as the executive governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, assured residents of the state of his determination to take the education sector in the state to the next level by leaving it better than he met it.

Truth to his words, the outgoing governor has done a lot in improving the sector and place it among it’s peers in and across the country by improving upon what was on ground in 2915 when he assumed office.

The governor as part of his first move to deliver on his promises identify a certain local government in the state without a senior secondary school not only in the state but the whole country.

Gudu local government is a local government in the state without a senior secondary school with students who intend to further their education beyond Junior Secondary School will have to travel down to the state capitals, a journey of over 100 kilometers to acquire senior secondary school education.

These according to findings contributed in no small way to high level of illiteracy and early marriage especially among the. Women folks as most parents who could not afford the cost of distance education resolve to take their wards especially girls for marriage.

To address the challenge, the governor approved the construction of the state of the art edifice school building to address the challenge in Balle, headquarters of Gudu local government area.

The modern school edifice consist of classrooms, laboratories, library’s, dining, office accomodations, hostel accommodation for prospective students, official residence for staffs, sport facilities among many others.

The school was built to fill the gap in enrollment of prospective senior secondary school school in the local government and it’s immediate neighbors as well as Niger Republic which shares border with the local government area.

Speaking in one of his media engagement, the governor said, “when we came in and set up a committee of team of experts on education on the way forward in which we were advised on the need to pay attention to both basic and tertiary education sectors in the state.

” As a result of that, we separated ministry of education from just one ministry of education to ministry of basic education and ministry of higher education. Of course, ministry of science and technology was there but we unbundled it to make it ministry of science, technology and innovation

“Education has always been taking the highest chunk of our budget in the state and the main reason behind that is the best way to avoid all of the challenges from insecurity, poverty and others is education. Once people are educated, is not just to find a white collar job but can always find a way to engage themselves. So, we identified education as a key to all the spheres of development of human society, that is why we make it a priority.

“The figures are there, when we came in, go and check, what was the figure of the out of school children and what is the current figure in Sokoto State. What was the report of UNICEF and compare it with today. Go and check the results of WAEC and NECO this year, is there any improvement, because these are now students that we have trained overtime and the results are coming out. We are beginning to see the impact of our investment in educating these children.

“I challenge you to go and look for the figure from the ministry of education and you will see exactly what is the situation. I can assure you that we have achieved a lot. I am sure you have been to Gudu, the only local government without a senior secondary school in Nigeria before we came in, we have established a very mega secondary school there, but unfortunately insecurity has made it very impossible for us to put the school to use. The challenges of insecurity is also affecting the education sector.

“I can tell you that I have beginning to think that we may have to devolve most of our schools in Sokoto State and pay attention more to day schools untill such a time when the security situations in the state improves. Education is a success story in Sokoto as I said, we have established many many primary school, we have rehabilitated a number of them, we have established new ones both under SUBEB and even for under ministry of local government affairs.

The intervention under the ministry that has help us constructing new block of classrooms, junior secondary schools across the state. And of course, renovating senior secondary school, primary schools and established new ones. Along those lines, we have also established as you are aware Girls Science Academy to promote girls education. We have established a female education board which I believe is one of the very best in Nigeria”

The governor further said, “we are also the first to have law as the first to make education free and compulsory in both primary and secondary school in the state. I believe that both in terms of policy, in terms of legislation, in terms of investment, this administration has done a lot on education in Sokoto State.

” In facts the figures are there and will speak for us. Also, part of what we have been doing, when you checked, an institution like Sultan Abdulrahaman school of health technology, have not received much of physical investment in the past, we are currently doing a number of projects in that school.

“The state College of education, the Polytechnic, we are doing some projects there also and not to talk of the state University, the state Colleges of Nursing and Midwifery, both here in Sokoto and Tambuwal.

“We have adopted holistic approach in addressing the issue of education sector in the state from the basic, to secondary and tertiary levels. Part of it is after the 50th anniversary of Shehu Shagari College of Education to upgrade it to University of Education, so that we can have training ground for more teachers we might be lacking in the state”

Recalled that upon assumption of office, as the governor declared state of emergency on education, a situation experts described as one major factor that has helped the government in the rebuilding process of the education sector.

The governor upon the declaration of emergency on education in the state set up a special committee headed by the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, to oversee the education tax in the state. The results of the said committee is however visible as almost all the schools in across the 23 local governments area of the has a new block of two storey building courtesy of the intervention of the committee.

Tambuwal believes that education is the cornerstone of all growth, which is why he allocated the largest portion of the administration’s annual budget to it upon taking office. Given the widespread perception that Sokoto State’s educational system is underdeveloped, this admirable action was taken to mobilise support for education and ensure that it reflects the interests and aspirations of the populace.

For instance, in 2020, during a condolence visit from the Committee of the Pro-Chancellors of Nigerian States’ Universities (CPCNSU), Tambuwal addressed the group, saying: “This is our collective responsibility to see that our younger ones are educated, particularly those children that are out of school. We, as leaders, should provide them with basic education by creating the enabling environment and making provisions for necessary infrastructure, learning materials and personnel for the education of our younger ones.”

The governor has already sent a “Right to Education Bill” to the State House of Assembly, putting his words into effect. All children in Sokoto State between the ages of 6 and 18 are now required to receive free and compulsory education as a result of a bill that was approved by the legislature and signed by the governor. With the support of all significant educational stakeholders, the governor initiated an enrollment drive campaign to ensure the full and efficient implementation of the “Child Right Law.”

The initiative aims to alter the unfavourable perception of Sokoto State in the area of western education by getting all out-of-school children in the state back in the classroom. Happily, according to data made public by UNICEF, Tambuwal’s administration has successfully enrolled 75,200,000 out-of-school children in school by the year 2020.

Governor Tambuwal formed the State Consultative Committee on Education, which is headed by Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto, in order to support the education sector even further. The committee, whose power comes from the administration initiated education tax, was successful in building and renovating several formal and informal elementary and secondary schools as well as providing them with modern amenities throughout Sokoto State.

Other noteworthy educational initiatives carried out by the administration include the opening of the Government Girls Arabic Junior Secondary School in Sanyinna in Tambuwal local government, the Command Boys Secondary School in Shagari local government, the renovation of Gamji Girls College in Rabah local government, the expansion and renovation of the Government Day Secondary School in Tambuwal, as well as similar initiatives in Kilgori of the Yabo local government and another one at Kofar Rini.The administration decided to take the bull by the horns in order to further revitalise the education sector and started and finished building the Government Science Academy, Kasarawa in the Wamakko local government.

In it’s rating, the Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA), with an enrollment figure of over 70,000 children in Sokoto State has been adjudged the education program as having surpassed the watershed mark of 100% by recording over 140%.

This was the verdict of the national implementation adviser of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr Danjumma Adamu Dabo, who led the BESDA implementation committee on a courtesy visit to Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal at the Council Chamber of Government House, Sokoto, late last year.

According to him, Sokoto state government is one of the states that have shown a remarkable achievements on BESDA implementation.

He said available record shows that in the seven local governments participating in the BESDA program, 769 schools are online and have registered 264,785, outstripping the targetted enrollment of 187,682.

He explained that so far, in the non-formal learning centres the program have recorded over 4000 enrollment, which is a very laudable achievement by the state government.

These results, which heralds the last verification exercise, precedes the end of BESDA programme.

Responding, Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal commended the team and the World Bank for coming up with the initiative with a view to address the challenges that are peculiar in the target states.

He expressed appreciation for the program, saying that it has helped in tasking the state education manpower, making it evolve a competitive spirit geared towards achieving results.

Tambuwal said his administration will continue to do its best as the program winds down, by applying the experiences and practices learnt from it.

Soliciting for a replica of BESDA, he pledged to forge the same cooperation with its initiators, maintaining that the state government will sustain all the fine points of the program within the area of coverage and in the entire state.

Tambuwal apart from ensuring no indigene of the state paid a dime in acquiring education from elementary level up to the University also ensure payment of token to parents in order to allowed their girl child acquire western education.

He has also through the state scholarships boards sponsored over 200 students from the school abroad for different science program such as medicine, Nursing, pharmacy, Engineering, ICT among many others.

Meanwhile, within this period the Tambuwal led administration has received numerous awards in celebrating his numerous achievement on education sector in the state, amongst this is Tribune Platinum Award, which was bestowed on him by management of ANN Plc, in commemorating 70 years of the foremost Newspaper sometimes in 2019