Friday, January 24, 2014

WHERE THE FORMER ACCOUNTANT GENERAL OF THE FEDERATION IS THE GOVERNOR : 31-year-old Gombe school has only one teacher! …and he is the principal ... Yeye de smell : NationalMirror


Established in 1982 by the community, Government Day Senior Secondary School is the only secondary school in the ancient Birin-Fulani village and the neighbouring communities in Gombe State. However, since it was taken over by the state government about eight years ago, the school has lost all its past glories and now has only one permanent teacher. DANJUMA WILLIAMS, in this report, gives account of the school’s quest for rescue.
By 2020, Nigeria hopes to be one of the 20 largest economies in the world with ability to consolidate its leadership role in Africa and establish itself as a significant player in the global economic and political arena. This desire, christened ‘Vision 2020,’ to many stakeholders seems unachievable as long as schools like the Government Day Senior Secondary School, Birin-Fulani in Nafada Local Government Area of Gombe State, where only one teacher is on government payroll, continues to exist. Birin-Fulani is a rural but ancient community with a population currently growing into tens of thousands. Its retarded growth is linked with the people’s lack of western education, and that informed the decision by its leadership to set up a secondary school in 1982.
The development, which was described by Babawuro Biri Usman, one of the community leaders as a good boost to its social-economic activities, drew many people to the community as students also enrolled from neighbouring villages. “Our children also stopped trekking many kilometers to attend secondary school and many now work with the government having attended higher institutions.”
However, in 2004, the Gombe State Government decided to take over the control of the school from the community to achieve, what it termed, better administration and academic excellence. But this was a mere wishful thinking, as the school that used to be the community’s pride has steeply degenerated to an eyesore. Apart from the dearth of teaching and learning tools, teachers, are also not available.
With a current students’ population of 306, the school has only one permanent teacher, who is also its principal. All other teachers are either volunteers or youth corps members who are having their mandatory one-year primary assignment in the school.
“Getting permanent teachers for the school has been a problem since the government took over from the community about eight years ago,” said the Principal, Mr. Maxwell Manga. Manga, who was posted to the school just last October, told National Mirror that because of the inability of the ministry of education to get teachers on permanent appointment, the local government controlling the area had to deploy four teachers to the school recently. Two of these teachers, according to the principal, are holders of Higher National Diploma (HND) certificate while the rest are NCE certificate holders.
“We would have been two permanent teachers employed by the state’s ministry of education but the second person, Mr. Adamu Abubakar reported only twice. The first time was the day I assumed office as the principal.
The second time was during the staff verification exercise, which was carried out by the ministry. Ever since then, I have not set my eyes on him again. What he told me on his last visit was that he was sick but he never disclosed the exact ailment and where he got the permission to stay away from work,” he explained.
Piqued by the degeneration, the principal said he had to send a letter to the ministry requesting for more teachers, especially those who could take the core subjects like Mathematics and English Language, but “all I got since then was a promise.” Manga, however, disclosed that despite the fact that many students of the school were interested in learning; the inadequacy of teachers has continued to affect their performance in public examinations.
According to him, those that sat for the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations conducted by both West African Examination Council (WAEC) and the National Examination Council (NECO) in the last two years, performed very poorly. “The best results the school recorded was by those who obtained credit in just about four subjects, including Mathematics in NECO exam while that of WASCE was generally poor,” he said, adding: “And expectedly with this kind of results, only a few of the students would be able to gain admission into tertiary institutions.
I know the few, who are really the best among them, they are currently studying at the Federal College of Education, Gombe and the School of Health Technology, in Kaltungo,” he said. Just like the principal, the youth corps members, who are currently serving in the school, also expressed their disappointment over the distasteful condition the school has found itself over the years.
They clamoured for more teachers; better infrastructural facilities, as well as the provision of teaching aids that can enhance the quality of teaching in the school. Investigations revealed that the school also has only three classrooms for the entire students from SS1 to 3 in the following arrangements: SS1 (104), SS2 (98) and SS3 (104).
An overcrowded classroom, that runs afoul of the UNESCO’s recommendation of maximum of 40 students per classroom, makes the teachers’ work more tedious and unenviable. One of the corps members, Mr. Godwin Adey, said he uses his personal textbooks to teach the students, saying they also had to condone a lot of excesses from the students just to ensure they learn something.
Babawuro Biri Usman explained that the indigenes of the area in 2011/2012 academic session pooled resources together, through which they built one of the three classrooms and one hall which is now dedicated for exams.
“We love education in our community. We want our children to go to school and that is why we are doing everything possible to assist the school since inception,” he said. “And our next plan now is to build a science laboratory and equip it very well so that we can be able to encourage students to develop interest in science subjects,” Babawuro disclosed.
However, as terrible as the condition of this school is, it is noteworthy that it still ranks better among the schools in the neighbourhood. On the effect of lack of teachers on learning in the school, one of the students, Isah Adamu, praised the youth corps members, who he said have been teaching them tirelessly.
“These corps members are very wonderful. Apart from teaching us, they also give us moral support,” he said. While expressing the wish of the students in having permanent teachers that could stay with them for a longer time, he said over 75 per cent of children in the area were interested in going to school.
However, efforts to get the reaction of the state’s Commissioner for Education, Hajiya Aishatu Ahmed, on the efforts of the government to address the challenges were unsuccessful. All other senior staff refused comments. But about a month ago when Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, while touring the Nafida Constituency, visited the school, promised to look into its deplorable condition by fixing the necessary facilities that, would make the teaching and learning friendly to the teachers and to students.

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