Creating An Enviable Educational Legacy In Gombe
Mon, 16/07/2012 ? 1:56am | M. L. ISMAIL Opinion Comment & Opinion
It is an undisputable truism that education is the bedrock of development. This is why education remains the best legacy anyone would bequeath his child or the generation next. But these would only be mere sayings if the sector is left tainted and unattended to.
Accordingly, Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo?s administration in Gombe state has thus remained focused and committed to giving this all important sector its pride of place in the scheme of the developmental activities since inception in May 29,2011. Driving this commitment is what the governor himself compressed into giving the younger ones what he was given so that they can become better citizens tomorrow.
To be in firm control of the wheel therefore, the administration decided to make education above all other things its first, second and third priority. The desire is to confront and peel off the scales of rust that has encased the state?s education sector over the years.
With the contending issues of the Governor?s intention on one side and the miserable year in year out below par school certificate examinations results, the administration wasted no time in swinging into action as recommended by the committee set up to look at the problems besetting the education sector in the state. The committee was constituted alongside eleven others to look into the different sectors of the system and make recommendations.
Part of the recommendations of that committee was the need for a stopgap measure to get back on track the education dream, hope and aspirations of the majority the state?s public senior school certificate graduates who were already made despondent by the inability to break the jinx of passing the almighty Joint Matriculations Examination (JME).
That recommendation birthed the Gombe state government collaboration with the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) to run a pilot remedial programme for 1,000 students, having identified that the lots of students who left secondary school but failed to obtain the entry point into either university or polytechnic required remediation.? Under the Gombe state/ UNIMAID arrangement, students are absorbed into the University system but study in Gombe where they are tutored/guided by the institution?s staff and electronically write the same entrance examination as their colleagues on campus.
?Whoever makes JAMB cut-off score of 200 points and above as well as pass the entrance examination will be given automatic admission into any course of his/her choice,? explained the Vice Chancellor of the University of Maiduguri, Professor Mala Daura when he visited Gombe to oversee the students and conduct of the programme recently. Those who pass the remedial examination but fall short of the required UME cut-off score of 180 will be given another opportunity while the results are maintained. And for those that cannot pass both the remedial and JAMB entrance exams on the other hand, the university has undertaken to introduce diploma and other certificate courses into which they will be absorbed.
?So it is one of the youths programmes that we have introduced and will sustain till anytime when the pressure of solving the problem of this category of people is reduced. So the conclusion is that it will be a continuous programme and as soon as the exams are over on Friday (15-06-2012), sales of new forms will commence,? assured Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo while commenting on the issues of education in? the state and under his administration. He also use opportunity to hint that under the same partnership strategy, the state government will roll out a similar programme in conjunction with the University of Kashere strictly for English Language and Mathematics as soon as academic activities resumes.
But this agenda in its beauty and grandeur is only a precursor to a more grand arrangement with the Gombe State University which is also designed to follow the same collaborative dimension. To this end, two Schools of Basic and Remedial Studies were proposed to established at Kumo and Dukku towns in Akko and Dukku local government areas of the state to strengthen the remediation process. While that of Dukku is still in the pipeline, the one in Kumo has already taken-off in earnest and it is designed to cater for 4,500 in three years, that is 1,500 per session.
What makes this a more grand and interesting an arrangement is that it will not only remediate the senior secondary school graduates in preparation for a tertiary education, it will as well remediate the JSS and then do a full remedial for them in readiness for entry into a university or polytechnic.
Education like Governor Dankwambo has always said is the administration?s priority because in his words, ?it is the bedrock and the root tree from where the spread of development truly branches into health, entrepreneurship, and other sectors,? which according to him is the reason the administration is making the best investments it could in the sector so that the branches will witness improvements.
?Ismail wrote in from Bolari Quarters, Gombe
