From Ahmed Kaigama, Bauchi.
Yobe State Commissioner of Education, Alhaji Mohammed Lamin, has disclosed that the frequent attacks on schools in the state by insurgents have resulted in decline in the number of children who attend school.
He said despite the security challenges facing the state it was rated as one of the best states doing well in education.
He made the disclosure during the opening ceremony of a five day training workshop for 262 education facilitators with the theme “ Revitalisation of Adult and Youth Literacy in Nigeria”, organized by Borno and Yobe states Agency for Mass Education in collaboration with NMEC and UNESCO in Bauchi.
He said education has suffered serious setback in the two states as a result of attacks on schools by insurgents.
He said the frequent attacks by insurgents in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions in the two states has discouraged many parents from sending their children to school, hence the level of education in the state has deteriorated over the past one year.
“with such a precarious situation like this, the states will continue to record poor level of education if the security situation in the affected states does not improve. Some parents have started to relocate their children to schools in the south and other states of the federation where schools are not under attack”.
“We are calling on the federal government and other donor agencies to come to the aid of the two states by ensuring that education is revitalized as our resources have been overstretched”, he said.
In his address, the Borno State Secretary of Agency for Mass Literacy , Alhaji Abubakar Kalia, said the states decided to conduct the training for 262 facilitators for mass literacy in Bauchi because of the insecurity experienced in the states.
He said at the end of the training exercise for the facilitators, they will be posted to all the local government areas in the two states to boost the level of literacy as the educational system in the respective states is under threat by insecurity.
