Alhaji Ibrahim Abdullahi, Commissioner of Education in Zamfara says the government requires over N1 billion for the renovation of 23 secondary schools in the state.

Abdullahi disclosed this to newsmen in Gusau on Tuesday after an assessment visit to some of the secondary schools.
He said that the visit was to enable him to assess the state of facilities in the schools with a view to rehabilitate them and make the environment conducive for teaching and learning.

“Following the concern of governor Bello Matawalle to revive the education sector in the state, I have his mandate to go ahead and propose the best ways to address the dwindling structures in all our schools.

“This will also cover improvement of teachers’ quality, recruitment, and training of indigent teachers and an enhanced teachers’ welfare in the state, including special allowances to teachers on rural postings,” he said.

According to him, most of the school’s structures in the state had suffered neglect over the years, which had also contributed to poor teachers’ output and poor performance of students attending public schools in the state.

“We are now going to concentrate on the improvement and upgrading of structures, reduce the number of teachers on contract, recruit, and train more of our unemployed youths who have the basic qualifications.

“In doing this, however, we will not allow selfish interests to overshadow the administration’s focus to ensure that the education sector of the state is turned around for the better.

“We will ensure that we establish a good data bank of staff, students, and structures for easier monitoring and project execution mechanism which will cover all the existing 197 senior and junior boarding and day public schools spread across the state,” he said.

The commissioner appealed to members of the public to intensify prayer for the success of the Governor Bello Matawalle-led administration as it strives to improve all public sectors in the state.