Many classrooms, no teachers – Jigawa will no longer budget for school building – State Assembly

Jigawa State House of Assembly said it would no longer entertain any budget provision for the building of more classrooms in the state’s appropriation bill.

Chairman of the House Committee on Education and member representing the Gwaram constituency Ado Yakubu Zandam stated this on Wednesday at the Jigawa Education Accountability Forum’s media parley in Dutse.

He stated this while reacting to shortages of teachers that have been affecting the sector for many years due to over-retirement.

Gwaram explained that previous administrations have done well in the provision of a learning environment and done less in the recruitment of adequate and qualified teachers.

“Hardly to go on a long distance without seeing a school building but you may end up having few or no permanent teachers in the school, especially in the rural areas”

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“This is may be because some people are getting percentages out of the building of the classrooms”

Newspot reported that within six months over 746 staff have retired out of which more than 60% are teachers of Primary and secondary schools.

Earlier, member evidence subcommittee Jigawa Education and Accountability Forum ( JEAF) Isa Mustapha while presenting the state education budget review said the state has underperformed in the first and second quarter of the year on its budget implementation on education.

According to him” With the state having allocated a lion’s share to education on its 2023 appropriation of 37% of the total budget, the state budget released on education is only 28.9% which is below the expected 50%”

“It is quite unfortunate that despite the huge amount of resources government is spending on the education sector, the outcome is minimal which can be attributed to inadequate and un qualified teachers”

State team leader Partnership for Learning for All in Nigeria (PLANE ) Jigawa State, Mustapha Ahmad advised the government to consider recruitment of adequate and qualified teachers as its top priority to achieve the target objectives.

He called on Governor Umar Namadi to ensure timely releases of the education budget for the third and fourth quarter of the year to achieve the set goals.