Governor Mohammed Abubakar has provided the 2014 and 2015 UBEC matching grants of 1,829,054 naira (one billion, eight hundred and twenty nine million, fifty four thousand, fifty-four naira) to the Bauchi State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, for execution of projects, provision of teaching and learning materials and training of teachers at the basic education level.
Executive chairman of the Bauchi state universal basic education board, SUBEB, Professor Yahaya Ibraheem Yero stated this at the launching of teacher training on early grade reading and the distribution of teaching and learning materials organized by the Northern Education Initiative Plus, NEI Plus in collaboration with Bauchi State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB.
The executive chairman said provision of the matching grants, which is the first of its kind in the history of Bauchi the state, allows the Board to execute most of the programs and projects within its mandate.
He explained that the program launches teacher training on early grade reading and the distribution of one million two hundred and sixty nine thousand, eight hundred and thirty seven copies of teaching and learning materials developed by the NEI Plus and the training of six thousand teachers.
The chairman stressed that “a major area of emphasis in the strategic plan for development of education sector is teacher education and development which is a vital component of standards and quality assurance.”
“No education system can rise above the quality of its teachers as the standard of its teachers invariably affects the performance of the pupils and students,” Professor Yahaya Yero said, and lamented that education has suffered serious decline in the last two decades which requires political will and determination to reverse.
While commending the efforts of the administration of Governor Mohammed Abubakar in restoring sanity to governance especially in the education sector, the chairman revealed that NEI Plus with support from UBEC and SUBEB has trained 20 master trainers and 240 trainers of teachers and the cluster/school training for class teachers.
He said teacher professional development training in Bauchi state targets at 6,079 teachers and head teachers in 1,751 primary schools in the 10 selected NEI Plus intervention LGEAs, saying “these teaching and learning materials targets to benefit 249,292 pupils, comprising 88,998 primary 1, 82,479 primary 2 and 77,815 primary 3 pupils.”
Governor Mohammed Abubakar stressed that education is the only thing that “guarantees a responsible livelihood, promotes and develops the individual’s personality, talents, mental, emotional and physical potentials to the maximum”, a reason which he said informed the decision of his administration to pay priority attention to that critical sector.
The governor reiterated determination of his administration to transform the education sector and ensure access to quality education for all “school age children, adolescent girls, youths and adults as well as children who for one reason or the other are unable to access education in the conventional schools.”
He explained that the administration is making efforts through the ministry of education and other agencies to create an avenue for all categories of people to access education through both formal and non-formal education system.
He said “our goal is to use education to reduce poverty, illiteracy and improve access to information and translate all these into tools for peaceful coexistence and harmonious relationship among our people.”
Governor Abubakar therefore called on all schools and teachers to encourage reading culture among school children and introduce them to famous Hausa books.
