How Kebbi primary, secondary education fare under Comrade Governor Idris

By Abdullahi Idris Sadaukin Zuru

Kebbi State Governor Comrade Nasir Idris has made significant strides in revamping the state’s education sector, fulfilling people’s expectations, as a professionally trained teacher and former national president of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT).
On the assumption of office after an overwhelming victory during the 2023 general elections.
Conscious of possible rejection, he undertaken a holistic analysis of the educational sector with a view to have a comprehensive situation of the various sub-sectors of the system.
The discovered situation at that point in time was alarming, considering the inadequacy of structures and facilities as well as the dilapidated nature of the existing infrastructure.
Determined to salvage the situation and improve without compromising the competing demands of other critical sectors of development, Comrade Governor Nasir Idris strategised and designed a comprehensive programme of reconstruction, rehabilitation, construction of additional structures and provision of required teaching and learning materials to implemented in phases
The implementation started with the rehabilitation of the worst affected schools and construction of additional primary and secondary schools at different parts of the state in the early days of the administration. In addition. It included construction of over 300 new primary and secondary schools with furniture and rehabilitation of about 1,500 dilapidated primary and secondary schools across the state.
Late last year, Kebbi state government procured over 200,000 different categories of textbooks of different subjects worth N3b and handed over to the State Universal Basic Education Board under the Chairmanship of Professor Khalid Jega for distribution to primary schools in the state.
To ensure effective utilisation of the items, local governments education management committees under the Chairmanship of Professors of Kebbi State extraction from different universities were constituted for each of the 21 local governments and directed to work with the Education Secretaries.
It is also on record that four mega boarding secondary schools for the teaching of sciences and skills acquisition have been established in Birnin Kebbi, Argungu, Yauri and Zuru each with the capacity of accomodating 2000 students and will soon demonstrate commissioned.
Early this week, Comrade Governor Nasir Idris and Comrade Governor Nasir Idris further demonstrated his commitment to improving the educational standard in the state, commissioned and handed over about 13 thousand units of school furniture to the state Commissioner of Education Dr. Halima Muhammad Bande with clear directives to share with the State Universal Basic Education Board on fifty-fifty basis.
In furtherance of his administration’s policy of improved welfare of the teachers, he announced the commencement of arrangements for granting soft furniture and motorcycle loans to the teachers in order to motivate them for improved productivity.
In the same vein, the Comrade Governor had recently approved a reviewed retirement age for teachers from thirty-five years of service to 40 years and from 60years of age to 65years in order to maximally utilised their experiences.
It is equally worthy of note that the various expenditures inquired do not include the inherited backlog of debts that amounted to about N5billion for the payment of scholarships for the state indigenes studying at different institutions within and around the world.
While all the state government’s educational revitilision programmes are gradually and successfully being implemented, Comrade Governor Nasir Idris has remained grateful to the civil servants in the state, particularly the teachers for their support and consistent prayers for the success of his administration.
He assured that his administration would continue to honour all it’s obligations, stressing that all rights and privileges yet to be paid due to some buerocratic bottle neck will be resolved.

Abdullahi Idris Sadaukin Zuru,
Special Adviser on Communication and Strategy to Kebbi State Governor.