By Usman Shuaibu
Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu has charged state governments to pay their counterpart financial commitment which qualifies them to access the funds allocated to them by the federal government through the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).
The Minister gave the charge while receiving the Niger State Governor, Abubakar Sani Bello, who paid him a courtesy visit in his office in Abuja .
Mallam Adamu, who observed that some states had not accessed their funds since 2015, noted that it could have helped them to improve basic education delivery.
The Minister emphasized that solid foundation must be developed at basic education level if the system must be right at all other levels.
He then assured of federal government’s commitment to work with the states in the areas of teacher development and Technical/Vocational Studies, as both forms part of the Ministerial Strategic Plan developed by the Ministry.
He commended the Niger State Government for its giant strides in education and rated it high in terms of promoting technical education.
He directed the Executive Secretary of Universal Basic Education (UBEC), Dr. Hamid Bobboyi, to consider possible assistance to Niger state to develop the three special teacher training institutes spread across the state as well as the plans to re-train teachers in the state rather than contemplating sack which can worsen unemployment situation in the country.
Speaking earlier, Governor Bello briefed the Minister on the deplorable condition of the education sector which he inherited, stressing that the situation was so terrible in terms of infrastructure and teacher quality.
He said that his administration had started fixing the infrastructure bdeficit including providing more classrooms and students’ hostels.
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