An educational development committee set up by Sokoto State Government under the leadership of the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III has expended the sum of N833,607,314.43k million on the construction of schools infrastructure in strategic locations across the three senatorial district of the state.
This was contained in a report compiled by the Sultan’s State Consultative Committee on Education Development (SSCCED), which said it constructed 13 schools within the period of 2017-2020 when its total receipt, from voluntary deductions made from civil servants and public office holders in the state, amounted to N1.138 billion.
Secretary of the committee, Abubakar Muhammad, who read the report on behalf of the committee, when the committee visited Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, stated that the balance currently accruable to the committee within the period under review, stands at N305, 917, 987.09 million.
He explained that Phase One of the projects comprising six schools were successfully completed, commissioned and taken over by the benefitting communities, while the remaining seven were at the various levels of completion.
Those completed include, Gagi, Danchadi, Horo Birni, Katami, Araba and Dantudu respectively while the ongoing ones are at appreciable levels of completion. They include the Junior Secondary School at Rumbu in Sokoto North, Junior Secondary School, Gigane in Gwadabawa Local Government Area, Usman Makera Community Secondary School, Achida, Mallam Buhari Government Day Secondary School, Sifawa, Sanyinna Model Primary School and another school at Bagida in Tambuwal Local Government Area.
The committee’s secretary added that all the schools constructed in partnership with the Nigerian Navy Holdings Limited were provided with solar-powered water borehole facilities alongside 500 liters overhead tanks with complete reticulation, complete electrification using solar power source, furniture for staff and students, instructional working materials, laboratories, Information Communication Technology facilities etc.
Muhammad maintained that the committee also constructed 100 school shelter facilities (Islamiyya Schools) and equipped them with the necessary instructional teaching and learning materials of both Islamic and Western education running simultaneously at the grassroots levels.
Similarly, the committee, he said, intervened in the total renovation of an administrative block, two block of four classrooms and a school mosque at Gamji Girls College, Rabah with a view to facilitating teaching and learning activities under its quick intervention support projects.
In his remarks, Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar III said they were at the Government House to brief the governor on the achievements so far recorded by committee since the inception.
The Sultan added that all the members have shown commitment by working as a team in order to achieve the desired objectives.
While thanking the governor for the opportunity given to them he also called on him to consider giving the committee the responsibility of taking over the renovation and construction of all dilapidated schools in the state.
In his address, Governor Tambuwal said the idea of forming the committee was based on the recommendation of a committee on the declaration of emergency on education in the state.
Thereafter, narrates the governor, the state government approached the Sultan and asked him to chair the subsisting committee.
According to him, after the committee was inaugurated civil servants, after due consultations with the Office of the Head of Service and labour leaders, agreed to contribute 3% of their basic salary while political office holders agreed to pay 5% of their salary.
The governor thanked the committee for its commitments and hard work which resulted in the achievement of the set objectives, just as he expressed appreciation to the Sultan for his wisdom in renovating and building some blocks and infrastructure that now cater for Islamiyya schools.
On Almajiri education, the governor said he was happy with the kind of attention the state was giving to it, adding that the beauty of this itinerary education system can only be better appreciated when it was augmented with the Western education model.
