Yobe State Government says it has expended about N2billion on procurement of instructional materials for indigent students of public secondary schools in the state.
Mohammed Mamman, the Director-General, Press and Media Affairs to Gov. Mai Mala-Buni, stated this in a statement in Damaturu on Tuesday.
Mr Mamman, who was reacting to a viral video of a dilapidated classroom at the Government Secondary Schools, FIka, said the materials were distributed to the benefiting students and schools between 2019 and 2021.
He listed text books, classroom furniture, laboratory equipments, chemicals and other materials were distributed to the students and schools in 17 local government areas of the state.
“The video of a classroom mischievously singled out to give the government of Yobe State a bad name is a dead on arrival project.
“More than 200 schools have so far enjoyed major interventions and rehabilitation; six new Model Schools in Damaturu, Gashua, Potiskum, Geidam, Nguru and Buni Yadi were established and constructed.
“Seven new Mega Schools were established in Potiskum while two new schools constructed each in Damaturu, Gashua, Nguru, Geidam and Buni Yadi. All in effort to provide conducive atmosphere for teaching and learning.
“Just as over 10,000 teachers have been trained and retrained to enhance manpower requirements of the schools.
“As a state with lean financial resources and heavily devastated by protracted insurgency that targeted destruction of education facilities, this administration has rehabilitated many schools destroyed by the insurgents.
“Unfortunately, the characters behind the post refused to see these laudable achievements,” he said.
According to him, the school where the classroom in question is located will soon be rehabilitated alongside nine other schools across the state.
“It should be noted that no government has the capacity to rehabilitate every school structure in two years.
“The good people of Yobe state have proudly identified with the giant strides of Gov. Mala-Buni in his patriotic efforts to rejuvenate education sector in the state.
“The people have a duty to appreciate progresses and achievements recorded to spur government to do more rather than propagating a misleading scenario as if nothing is happening.
“It is a known fact that education remains the number one priority of the Gov. Mala-Buni’s administration.
“The governor declared a state of emergency on basic and secondary education few minutes after he took over the affairs of the state.
“This underscores the importance he attached to the sector. To further demonstrate his commitment to advance the state of education, a summit was organised to map out areas for immediate, intermediate and long term intervention,” he said.
