Bauchi has special interest in special schools – Board Chair

The chairman of Bauchi State Special Schools Board, Yakubu Ibrahim Hamza, says the government has provided the needed infrastructural facilities to solve students’ problems and meet changing education sector needs.

Special specialist high-needs How do you schools? Well, as you may have been aware, when this administration came on board, the entire education sector was in shambles, there was dearth of infrastructure in almost all institutions of learning; teaching and learning were at their lowest ebb, while students’ performance in both WAEC and NECO was nothing to write home about. The average passes in the two examinations in 2015 was 0.3% of students with five credits including English and Mathematics. Government has to take the bull by the horn in the education sector, and today one can proudly boast that students’ performance in the state schools in the two examinations I mentioned earlier has risen from 0.3% in 2015 to 27% in 2017.

Government places special interest in special schools by meeting all our needs, especially the provision of infrastructure such as school buildings and their renovation, provision of books, students’ twin desks, improvement of teachers’ welfare and above all ensuring school safety. It is now crystal clear that the governor has been doing everything humanly possible to raise the standard of education in the state.

In the last WAEC and NECO examinations for instance, our special schools’ students recorded 90% passes with five credits including in English and Mathematics. This is a great feat, and we have every confidence that the average scores in the two examinations in future, especially with the special schools, will continue to rise.

Are you saying that the achievements you enumerated cut across all the special schools in the state? schools give teaching to students. run these

It encompasses all our eight special schools in the state. Let me start with the Special Secondary School at Sakwa town. The most pressing problem bedevilling the institution is inadequate accommodation for teachers and same thing applied to Government College, Azare where some of the teachers’ houses required renovation. One of the dilapidated houses in the college named House No 1, was where I lived during my teaching career, and since I left the house, it has not been occupied - almost 20 years due to disrepair. When it was renovated sometime last year, the school principal moved into it and directed his vice to occupy the other renovated house. The decision for the principal and his vice to occupy the two renovated houses was to bog down the scramble among the teachers trying to occupy one of the two renovated houses.

How conducive and learning in schools?

Well, it may interest you to know that recently the special schools in the state participated in zonal and national education competitions. Bauchi State special schools, represented by Jibril Aminu Special Secondary School emerged the north-east’s overall winner of the competition and represented the zone at the national stage of the competition held in Abuja. The national competition had participants from the six geo-political zones of the country, and with the FCT that gave seven categories or teams in the grand event.

The competition had four federal colleges, the School for the Talented that represented the FCT, St. Louis College, a private school from the south and Jibril Aminu Secondary School and interestingly, Jibril is teaching the special Aminu School beat four of the seven schools to clinch the third position in the competition. This achievement by Jibril Aminu School is attributable to the support and encouragement His Excellency is giving to the special schools and the board in particular. So on the part of the board, we are doing everything humanly possible to ensure the rejuvenation of the sub-sector in our own interest and that of the leaders of tomorrow.

What other achievements has the board recorded?

Governor Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar introduced what is called 2E, ‘Eye On Education,’ a programme designed to conduct routine inspection visits to special schools and by extension all primary and secondary schools in the state. I was the representative of the special schools board in the state-wide Eye on Education programme and it started with the eight special schools under our board before it was subsequently expanded to 50 schools across the state.

So, every month, the team under the programme inspects 50 schools with a view to identifying their problems and where necessary solving them, and where such problems surpass the 2E team, we request the intervention of the state government be it morally or financially, and based upon the magnitude, we advise the respective schools to solve their own problems. And if they couldn’t, we try to address them.

Are you saying the government gives financial backing to the 2E programme?

Well, the government with meagre resources at its disposal cannot confront the rising problems across the state schools head-on, but it intervenes in solving the problems militating against the schools, because no matter how small it doles out, it goes a long way in solving some of the schools’ pressing problems. And it is because such emerging problems of the special schools are gradually being solved that the programme has every confidence that the state government would by next year expand the scope of the schools inspection to 100 schools in parts of the state, and continually, yearin, year-out, one would expect that all the over 400 schools across the state will come under the strict inspection of the 2E programme.

On the problems facing Government Girls Secondary School, Kafin Madaki, what are you doing to resolve them?

Well, you know that Kafin Madaki Special School was established way back during the military administration of governor Garba Duba and subsequently inherited by the Second Republic’s government of Tatari Ali. The present administration inherited a dilapidated school in 2015 with virtually everything in a bad shape that requires urgent attention. Most of the roofs in the school were leaking. But despite the bottlenecks, government successfully restructured the entire students’ classrooms, kitchen and other structures of the institution and today you can’t believe that it is the same school.

What is your board doing to motivate teachers in the special schools?

Yes, the board motivates teachers in the special schools. Recently, some of the teachers under the board were promoted to their next grade levels. Such teachers or beneficiaries of the motivation exercise are being identified by the schools’ inspectors who undertake routine inspection of the special schools. The principals and headmasters are being promoted subject to the approval of the governor.