How Rep. Soro’s intervention is aiding school enrollment, retention in Darazo/ Ganjuwa LGs
By Samuel Luka, Bauchi
Stakeholders in the education sector in Darazo and Ganjuwa local government areas of Bauchi state have applauded the House of Representatives member, Honourable Mansur Manu Soro for his various interventions in the sector.
The Lawmaker has established Special Primary School Lanzai which has 10 Staff with monthly allowance of N94,000; Darazo West Gifted School, Sade which has 15 Staff with monthly allowances of N157,000; Darazo Central Gifted School, Darazo with 15 Staff having N116, 000 as allowances; Ganjuwa East Gifted School, Soro with 17 staff receiving monthly allowances of N230,000 as well as Ganjuwa West Gifted School, Kafin Madaki which has 14 staff collecting monthly allowances of N149,000.
The schools have a total of 71 employees who are receiving the sum of N746,600 as allowances monthly which when pulled together, amounts to the sum of N8,952,000 annually.
Speaking to our Correspondent, Chairman of the School Base Management Committee in the area, said that the establishment of the Gifted School by the Lawmaker has impacted positively on secondary education in the area.
He said, as a result, parents are rushing to get spaces for their children considering the standard of teaching and learning in the school.
Checks revealed that the effort is a personal drive and motivation of the Lawmaker who is representing Darazo/Ganjuwa Federal Constituency, not part of the constituency projects of Federal Constituency.
It also showed that the stride is the Rep Soro’s way of giving back to the society that contributed to his present position in life.
The Headmaster of Special Primary School, Lanzai in Darazo LGA, Samaila Alhaji said that the School was established by Mansur Manu Soro and donated to the people of the community in 2022 with 141 pupils and eight teachers who are on the payroll of the Federal Lawmaker.
According to him, every Friday, all the pupils are being fed with variety of food freely from the grant made available to the School by the Member to the tune of N2m in 2023 while for 2024, it was more than N2m.
The Headmaster commended the initiative by the Federal Lawmaker, saying that all of the Pupils are not paying a single Kobo as fees but rather are receiving completely free education, as uniforms, textbooks, sandals, socks and other things are provided for them.
He added that the school was established primarily to take care of orphans, vulnerable children and those from IDP camps as well as Almajiris who lack access to formal schools.
Samaila Alhaji added that Rep Soro has opened bank accounts for all the pupils and deposited the sum of N10,000 each in the accounts for the upkeep of the children.
The Principal of the gifted school in Sade community said that the students are not required to pay any amount of money as everything has been taken care of by the Federal Lawmaker including uniform, shoes, bags, books among others.
At the Gifted Secondary School, Darazo, the Principal said that the Students have continued to display high standards of learning based on the teaching methods by the teachers a development that has made the school, a preference for many parents in the community.
Salihu Idris who is the Head Boy of the school, thanked Hon Mansur Manu Soro for establishment the school, commending the teachers for working tirelessly to impact knowledge on them.
Also speaking, Rukkayat M. Lawal, the Head Girl of the school said that the Teachers of the school have built up their confidence especially in public speaking, adding that before she joined the school, she was not fluent in speaking publicly.
All other students who spoke commended the Federal Lawmaker for establishing the School, expressing gratitude that it has accorded them the privilege to be in the secondary school education as most of them are from poor households.
Auwalu Sarki Shehu is the Sarkin Gabas of Soro, a traditional ruler in the community and while speaking on the various developmental projects of the house of representatives member, saying that the community has greatly benefited from his efforts.
According to him, the issue of the Gifted School has offered a lot of opportunities for the students to demonstrate their natural gift of learning.
While commending the Lawmaker for his foresight, the traditional leader who recalled that the school started with 50 students, added that it was very difficult to get the students due to believe by many that the initiative will work but now people are lobbying to get their children admitted into the school.
According to the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), there are 20 million out-of-school children in Nigeria, out of which 1.2 million are in Bauchi State.
Despite the free education policy of the Bauchi State government, a good number of children still do not attend school. In fact, according to Bauchi State Annual School Census, (ASC), data for 2019–2020, a total of 1,031,524 children are out of school in the State.
Worried by the worsening situation, Bauchi State Government organized an education summit to map out ways to tackle the dwindling education standard and quality.
Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi state had while declaring the Summit open, said its deliberations would dwell into multi-faceted issues including assessment and analysis of the state of the education in the state.
The Governor further explained that the summit would aim to convince stakeholders and development partners to collaborate with the government to address the challenges in the education sector of the state with a view to formulating formulate evidence-based policies to address them, among others.
In response to this figures and call by the government, Hon Mansur Manu Soro was prompted to embark on measures that will see to the promotion of education in Darazo/ Ganjuwa federal constituency and by extension, the entire state.
On what inspired him to establish the schools, Hon. Soro said it was meant to prepare the younger ones for the task of tomorrow’s leadership.