Tambuwal declares state of emergency in education sector

Aminu Tambuwal, governor of Sokoto state, has declared a state of emergency in the state’s education sector.

The governor announced the new development after the state executive council meeting which he presided over on Wednesday.

He pledged to turn around the fortune of the sector in the next four years.

Saidu Umar, commissioner of finance, said henceforth, extra ordinary measures will be implemented within a defined time-frame to achieve desired result.

He said statistics on education in Sokoto was not only worrisome, but regrettable, adding that with the new policy in place, government would be able to reverse the negative trend for the benefit of the state.

“Our objective is to improve enrollment at all stages—basic, secondary and tertiary. By the end of this programme, we will ensure that our quotas in all federal schools are filled,” Umar was quoted as saying.

“We hope to improve quality of teachers by training and retraining, and recruitment of new ones. Any teacher whose capacity did not improve after the training will be reassigned to where his ability will be better needed.

“The ultimate aim is to improve human capital capacity in the sector, eliminate inequality in access and radically improve numeracy and literacy.”

He added that other measures to be implemented include focusing on infrastructure by building new schools where necessary and improving on existing ones.

Other decisions reached at the council meeting include rendering of emergency assistance to 20,000 rice, onion, wheat and tomato farmers to mitigate the effect of last season’s flood.