Fintiri’s Development Strides in Education and Health
Suleiman Karahi writes about the giant strides being undertaken by the administration of Governor Umaru Fintiri in education and health sectors in Adamawa state
Education is universally recognized as an instrument for social, political, scientific and technological development. Many countries in the world see education as a good investment for national development because it is expected to produce the required quantity and quality of human resources for the socio-economic growth using the mix of inputs.
Nigeria, being fully aware of this, desired education as an instrument per excellence in the development of the national economy.
This desire has been heightened by the fact that the development history of advanced countries such as Britain, America, Germany and France, to mention but a few, is strongly hinged on education.
Since education is on the concurrent list in Nigeria, state governments own a large proportion of secondary and primary schools there by making it a top priority to provide quality education for the people.
This has made state governors including Governor Umaru Fintiri of Adamawa to prioritize education in the state.
On his assumption of office in 2019, Governor Fintiri met an education system that was in a sorry state in terms of access, enrolment, retention, and progression with ill-motivated teachers, poor learning infrastructure, lack of teaching aids and lack of incentives and subsidies for teachers, parents and students. Governor Fintiri initiated incentives packages by adopting free education policies without payment of tuition fees in public schools.
The administration also initiated the payment of national examination fees such as JSSCE, WAEC and NECO; and payment of bursaries (Scholarship) to indigent students in tertiary institutions, and so on.
Before this administration, teachers were owed arrears of salaries, but on his assumption in office, Governor Fintiri reversed this ugly trend by ensuring that teachers in Adamawa state are paid regularly.
The infrastructures in various institutions of learning have been improved by providing teaching and learning aids to schools, including the provision of scholarships to students of various tertiary institutions.
The governor has ensured that basic education is free in the State and no child is paying for both NECO and WAEC Exams in Adamawa State. Governor Fintiri will soon commence the renovation of 10 legacy secondary schools across the State. These investments and many more are aimed at encouraging school enrolment and progression to ensure that no child is left behind.
It is worthy of note that Governor Fintiri is happy that investment is yielding the desire result in the state very fast especially in the performance of students in national examinations. This is evident as the performance of students who scored five credits and above including the basic subjects of English Language and Mathematics in this year’s WAEC alone stood at over 75% with over 85% performance in NECO in the same subjects.
What this means is that the combined performance of students in these national examinations is over 90%; it also goes further to demonstrate that the greater percentage of these students have the requisite qualification to sit for and pass JAMB to gain admission into tertiary institutions of their choices. This is an unprecedented feat in the combined history of both Adamawa State and defunct Gongola State. Nothing can be more encouraging and rewarding, at the same time, than this.