Governor Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State has ordered the conversion of an abandoned Almajiri Model School in the state to a teachers’ institute.
The school is among over 150 model schools built or equipped under the Goodluck Jonathan administration.
The governor gave the order on Tuesday during an inspection visit to the school built at a cost of N360 million at Kwami Local Government Council area.
He said that the institute will be used to train and retrain teachers as part of efforts to improve the quality of education in the state.
“I came and I saw the deplorable structure; this school was meant to be an Almajiri School but unfortunately, it has not been put to use since 2015 when it was built and there was no proper maintenance,” the News Agency of Nigeria quoted the governor saying.
“As you can see, virtually everything in this structure has been damaged; the roof has been blown off because of the rain and all equipment there have been destroyed.”
He explained that his decision was to enable the state to benefit a little from the N360 million spent on building and equipping the school.
“Instead of it to just waste away like that, we intend to turn it to teachers’ institute and use it for training and retraining of our teachers, not only for the people of Kwami, but the whole state.
“I realise that the quality of our teaching staff, especially at the basic education level, need to be improved upon to enable them impart on our pupils, the best of knowledge,” he explained.
He said that additional structures would be added to make it conducive for learning and teaching.
Permanent Member II, State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, Abubakar Kumo had earlier told the governor that the school was never put to use since it was built and handed over to the state in 2015.
He said that it was constructed by the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, for Almajiri system of Education.
According to him, the school complex has 10 classrooms, hostels for staff and students, dinning hall and other facilities.
NAN
