DAN BELLO & STATE OF EDUCATION IN BAUCHI: SKIT GONE OVERBOARD
A recent viral video from a channel promoted by a social media influencer popularly known as Dan Bello has generated concerns overits tendency to mislead the public on the state of affairs in the education sectorin Bauchi state.
The Ministry of Education notes with grave
concern, how the spurious, unsubstantiated and potentially damaging claims have been
appropriated in contrast to the immediate and sustained priority demonstrated byHis Excellency, Sen. Bala Abdulkadir Mohammedfrom his assumption into officeas Executive Governor. With widely documented and overwhelmingreforms leading to improved state of affairsin the sectorover the last five years, the viral video is clearly an attempt to mislead and denigrate.
Chronicled insubtlemischief,Dan Bello’s inaccurate one minute and 30 secondsvideorendered in Hausa, detailed images of dilapidated school infrastructure from some selected insularlocations within the state.With a disturbing potential to suggest a neglect of the sector by His Excellency, Sen. Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed, Dan Bello’s skit sadly conveys a deliberate isolated realitywith an intent to generalize without appropriate supportive evidence to guide informed judgement.
Even as we readily acknowledge that, Dan Bello has made a successful career and enterprise out of his huge online following, enjoying public goodwilland the propensity for swaying traffic to his contents, we are dismayed by the misrepresentation identified with the willful lack of specific data or timeline to substantiate the claims, among other inaccuracies.
While the sources of the isolated images displayed appear to fit conveniently into the motive of his sensational narrative, Dan Bello’s glaring disserviceto his audience, and the leadership and people of Bauchi state isa reflection ofthe rising new normal in the emerging trend of alternative facts, and its peculiar tradition of disregard for empirical evidence. It is why Dan Bello’s tangential sphere of influenceunderscores the danger of skewed narratives and therefore requires clarification.
The immediate difficulty inestablishinga connection between the images and the reason for their current stateprovokes attention to the motive of the content.
It is within verifiable knowledge that some of the locations suffered damage from rainstorms and whirlwinds, even as the mapping of therapid coverage in intervention across the state on school’s infrastructure in particularhas left no school, location or regionout from the dashboard.
Following His Excellency, Sen. Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed’sinauguration for second term on
May 29, 2023 when he declared a state of emergency in the sector; actionable creativity, sense of purpose and the attendant urgency in his disposition to the sector have been extraordinary.
The restructuring of the Education ministry was instantly accompanied with huge infrastructural intervention with significant buyin of development partners and incentivization of parents, staff of the ministry, teachers and learners. Governor Mohammed’s eight focal deliverables have subsequently remained resounding and timebound from conception,in addressing the plague of out-of-school children, curricular, sustainablefunding
model and other bold, result-oriented initiatives.
Departurefrom decay and dilapidation As a fallout of the Education Summit convened to chart a roadmap for the sector, His Excellency, Sen. Bala Abdulkadir Mohammedincreased the budget to the sector from 12% to 16%, the highest in recent years. Mindful of the inadequacy of budgetary allocation in addressing the state of decay and dilapidation, the governor has never looked back or relented since 2019, with massive renovation and remodeling of about5,000various interventionstargeting schools’ infrastructure. Some of the most recent among these are 784 junior secondary schools and 219 senior secondary schools across the state, through the World Bank-assisted AGILE projectset for takeoff soon.
The projectequally coversconstruction of 21 new junior secondary schools and 22 in the senior secondary category.
Through secured matching grants, additional 387 one-block classrooms have been renovated.
An endless list of new projects has complemented these facelifts across the state. Some of them are,the construction of three ECCDE Model Schools in Bauchi, Toro, and Shira, construction of 12 Blocks of 4 high rise classrooms and a number of temporary shades through the BESDA project-Construction of 880 blocks of temporary Shades for IQE and additional 18,000 IQE temporary Shade seats, also through the BESDA Project.
Through additional funding support from UBEC in response to a special request put forward by the governoras an extension of the BESDA intervention,a commitment to construct three mega schools has been secured, with one to be situated in each senatorial zoneof the state.
Each of these facilities is equipped with 50 classrooms. Since inception of this administration in 2019, every local government has been listed among the North East Development Commission yearly funded beneficiaries of 20 blocks of three classrooms, one for each local government area, to complement these expansions, including the necessary enabling facilities, such as provision of 30,744 units of furniture secured from matching grants and the construction of 80 boreholes in 90 wells as supporting infrastructure for primary schools
through BESDA.
Already, the pathway has been paved for the 2023-2024 matching grant, including open, competitive bidding, for which the sum of N5 billion shall be availed to cater for 300 schools.
Proportionate, inclusivequalityTechnical vocational education In furtherance of his desire to promote inclusivity and equal access and opportunity for marginalized persons, His Excellency secured commitments from UBEC for the Alternative High School for Girls to mainstream non formal education into formal education.
The initiative, one in each of the three senatorial zones of the state, was graciously launched by the First lady, Sen. Oluremi Tinubu. UBEC has equally facilitated the construction of three Girls’ Technical Colleges in each of the senatorial zones of the state.In addition, Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed initiated the enactment of a legislation on inclusive education policy to guarantee equal access for Persons Living with Disability (PLWD). This has equally been complemented by the renovation and upgrading of the Special Education Center, Bauchi.
The global shift in paradigm to technical and vocational skills hasalso attracted priority in the evolving revolutionwith an African Development Bank intervention which secured funding for the total upgrade and overhaul of three TVET centers, one for each senatorial zones of the state, equipped with first class, state-of-the-art facilities.Beyond infrastructure: Innovative, resource-rich teaching and learning Under a sustainable counterpart funding, His Excellency, Sen. Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed brought innovation to bear on teaching and learning, with the establishment of smart schools, fully equipped with state-of-the-art spaces to deploy digital teaching and learning experiences.
The reclamation effort in reversing the fast eroding reading culture is another remarkable milestone recorded by this administration, with the pursuit of the establishment of libraries for each senatorial zone of the state, and the near completion of complimentary
Educational Resource Centers forstandardized, quality assurance in teaching and learning materials.
Manifest outcomes Sen. Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed’s declaration of a state of emergency in the education sector is historically a marked threshold, as it represents a fitting response, arresting asteady decline.
The immediate, drastic reversal within a short period of time is equally remarkably historical. Notably, a significant improvementhas been widely affirmedin the performance of students in external examinations, with the West African Examination Council (WAEC) results rising from 19% in 2019 to 31% in 2023, and National Examination Council (NECO) results improving from 72.52% to 83.51% in the same period.This could nothave happened without the systemic, integrative overhaul in infrastructure, human capital development and other enabling policies, including funding collaborations. As our teachers and learners relish the new dawnof an exciting teaching and learning experience, the administration’s deployment and reward policiesand sponsorship ofWAEC, NECO, and JAMBregistrations for over14,000 studentshave also been widely acknowledged as someof the most innovative incentives to return hope and dignityfor stakeholders and sustainable development for our dear state.
With over 500, 000 children brought back into the educational system, Bauchi state is a leading light in data-driven effective education planning and management, witha consistent Annual Schools Census (ASC) from 2020 till date to guide the delivery of the strategic roadmap.
To demonstrate the state’s commitment to global best practices in the sector, Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed initiated the adoption of National Girl Child Education Policy, Inclusive Education Policy and Safe School Policy, National Gender Policy in Education & Child Rights Act, among other policy and legal/institutional frameworks. Today, Bauchi state is oneofsix states selected to receive support through the System Transformation Grant from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), in furtherance of enhancing educational opportunities in the region. The recognition is an acknowledgement of the new dawn in the sector as a focal priority of His Excellency, Sen. Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed. It requires equal acknowledgement, support and encouragementof those in search of exemplary conversations to elevateand (or)emulate.
Jalaludeen Usman
Public Relations Officer
Bauchi State Ministry of Education
Bauchi
04.Oct.2024