If you hold political offices without impact, you are useless – Engr. Wakilbe

If you hold political offices without impact, you are useless – Engr. Wakilbe

Engineer Wakilbe is the current commissioner for Education in Borno state. In this interview with NEWSng, he . spoke about the challenges of 2022 and how he intends to surmount them. Bodunrin Kayode sent excerpt:-

Q: What are the challenges, that you have encountered in the short period of man the ministry of education in Borno?

A: My first major challenge I had with staff is the issue of nonchalant attitude towards work. I inherited a system that worked in education under emergency and there are so many abnormalities that needed correction. I inherited in the secondary school what was called the learning centers, where 10 schools gathered in one. And then its the whole school that is doing the work, the others are just there for being there sake. Over a 1000 teachers tied down to one school and less than 100 are working. So I tried correcting that. And I faced so much challenges, including political, corruption fighting back, and all these things. But to God be the Glory we achieved because if you are sincere in what you are doing, you will definitely achieve the desired result. Secondly, the quality of teachers in our public primary schools honestly is disheartening and that prompted the competence test. And out 17,000 it’s  only 5400, then later 395 could pass primary 3 standards then that confirms my frustration.

Q: Then the issue of…… Cuts in….. What do you mean by primary 3 standard, is it the primary school questions we know that you gave those adult teachers and they did not pass?

A: Yes it was composition and arithmetic, some didn’t pass. And they are 2,389 that don’t have any formal qualification whatsoever they are just there. So you can imagine such a system. So the second challenge I had there was that, till date the attendance rate is just less than 20%. In a school of 100 teachers you hardly find 20. In a local government of 500 teachers you hardly find 50 and you see the students are helpless, that is the kind of frustration I felt. In the private sector we are efficiency driven. There is no way you will miss any work. You are used to a system where attendance is between 95 to 98%. So you will feel so frustrated if you come to a system where a maximum attendance goes to just 40%. That is just the attendance of the teacher. If you access the knowledge honestly its frustrating and I have seen a lot of problems with the methodology, I have seen a lot of problem with swallowing policies hook line and sinker, I have seen a lot of gaps. And two things I did since I came was to call a conference, of principals and head teachers, we did it twice. And then we discussed the gaps and emerging issues, because if I look at what is tenable in the private sector and I look at the public schools honestly the gaps are just too wide and I called for answers. So in trying to get those answers I get very, very frustrated. Because to me if you hold a political office and you don’t make any difference then you are a useless person.

Q: Do we still have an estimate or the exact number of teachers teaching in Borno?

A: We had 17,400 as at January 2022, when we did that competence test, but there have been retirements up to 5th of October. Then 5th of October is the effective date of the extension of retirement ages and length of service. So what we are going to do is we are going to call for a complete censors by January of the number of teachers left. We have advertised for teachers, So the number left will now tell us what to recruit to fill up the gaps. But one thing I am going to say about the recruitment is that it is going to be a thorough process, only the best of the best will be selected so that we don’t repeat the mistake of the past. That of the Teaching Service board (TSB) is around 3,800 or there about, but you know it is very difficult to keep track, because there would be no more retirement for the next 5 years that is when we will now know our actual number.

Q: Cuts in…… These 17,400 are purely primary school teachers?

A: Primary and junior secondary school teachers, what you call the Local Education Authority. That of the secondary school is about 3,800 or there about.

Q: What is the real deficit figure of secondary school teachers that you need against 2023 budget?

A: You see, prior to my coming, there were over 132 secondary schools existing in a non existing place. What do I mean? In Government College Maiduguri, you find 10 schools, GGC you find 10 schools, in locations that are no longer existing. What I told them is that, every school must go back to its original location. I started with those in Mustapha Umar El-Kanemi College. Sending some of these schools back to their locations and merging some schools. 328 teachers turned up in Government College doing nothing. One small school in Bama is having over 400 teachers and less than 300 students. All these nonsense that the emergency brought had to be cleared. Now I have a complete list of 62 existing schools in their locality. If a locality is resettled then what we do, is to ensure that we take a secondary school there. This time alone we have opened up 11 new rural secondary schools in locations where they are actually needed, and we deployed teachers. So the actual gap will be calculated at the end of this session, when the schools must have operated for a complete year and with the extension. Because most of them were schedule to have retired next year. But with the extension, some of them who voluntarily accepted to extend their services, when that happens that is when we will scientifically analyze the gap and tell you. But the situation is worse in the primary school. In the case of the secondary schools it is not too pronounced. Then His Excellency produced something very, very nice, the community approach. Where the community are allowed to run the school, grants are giving to them and then they employ teachers from the environment, qualified teachers from the environment and they pay them contract, but non pensionable. They employ them as contract and non pensionable staff, renewable per anum. Big schools like Tijjani Bolori School a 60 classrooms mega school is operated that way. The first 2 mega schools built by His Excellency in Zannari and Ajilari community are also operating that way. So many of these schools, the one in Buratai is operating this way, the one in Biu is operating this way. Where government gives them grant and they employ teachers from their immediate environment and then it is run as a community school. This community approach has been adopted for many of these new schools which were opened. So that made the manpower gap not to be pronounced in the manner you expected to but after the actual relocation of all the schools, I expect an analysis from the Teaching Service Board. You know very, very soon the Teaching Service Board is going to migrate and become the Secondary Schools Commission. So before the establishment of that commission, analysis of this gaps will be done appropriately. We need to know those who are willing to extend and those who are not willing to extend their services. So at the end of the academic session we are going to have the kind of figures we should because it’s a national issue. The secondary schools commission is a national policy and we will eventually adopt it, its in the pipeline. The function of the ministry is policy coordination, monitoring and oversight, we don’t implement. My duty is to see that Teaching Service Board, SUBEB and Sanganya Board are doing their jobs. I coordinate overall policy matters as it affects the state executive. And it is my duty to monitor and see what happens in those schools. Implementation is usually done at agency level.

Q: Why do you need 11 new schools in Borno when what I am hearing now is that there are so many of them abandoned and unoccupied because of security reasons?

A: It’s not true I go to some of these places myself without escorts. I am not saying going and coming to go and stay there, because Indeed there is nothing in a place like Guzamala. I concur with the Theatre Commander. But for me, I go to all locations where there are schools and I go by road.

Q: So Guzamala is free?

A: Guzamala is free yes, people have not yet being allowed to return but there is nothing in Guzamala. Then there is Mairari in Guzamala on route to Monguno is also a community of Guzamala and people are still there. And I followed that route last week. The population is not big enough to support a school. But they are schools in Monguno. I went to Damasak to inspect schools, we have opened a Government Secondary School in Gubio and within the first week 400 students turned out to come and study. We have one in Magumeri, we are trying to open one in Gagiganna. By next term Gagiram will come on board and we are trying to open that big mega school in Monguno. We enrolled 7500 student. 

Q: I take it you are responding to this 11 schools now one by one. 

A: Yes 7500 students had been shortlisted by His Excellency the Governor himself when we went to Monguno. We have opened a new school in Zabarmari, they have never had a secondary school. We have open the new Government Junior school.  Then we have open the junior day in Mandarari in the community in Konduga. In Mandarari community of Konduga we have open a junior day there and it has over 500 students. Then we have open the Government Day in Bama, it’s having close to a thousand students now. We have opened a Government Day Secondary School in Kumshe, Banki, its also having about 400 students there. We have open the new mega school in Pulka, is having over a thousand students. We have open the new one in Gumsuri community of Damboa, is having about 300 students. We have opened the mega school in Askira as a Junior Day and on, and on it can go on.

Q: But Bama had schools before also?

A: Bama has only one school, but they now have two, yes there was only one secondary school, now they have two. They have a Government Girls Secondary School and they have a Government Day Secondary School. So when the population reaches a thousand in each of the schools, then we will open the Technical Bama. And when the IDPs are cleared in the Science Bama School we will open the Science Bama.

There is one close to Chibok that we went with  the governor to commission thus year one technical collage. 

It’s in Mbalala, it is functioning,_ it was commissioned before my time. Its functioning it has up to 600 students. I visited that school recently. 

Q: So how are you coping with the challenge of equipments, you go to a lab and you find only 10 pipette and 10 burette. You go to somewhere you don’t see the equipments?

A: 5000 classroom infrastructure has been destroyed along side with all facilities you could think of. To replenish that it will take time. Initially those school were not even there, now they are there. So as we keep on working, we will improve upon what we have achieved. So the healing of the wound caused by the insurgency is not a day affairs.

Q: Who is helping to buy pipette and burettes is it you that buy your equipments? 

A: We have equipments for 22 schools and we are going to equipped laboratories in 22 schools. The equipments have been handed over to me by the Ministry of Science High Education Science and Technology given us the equipments, now will fit the laboratories and then we will equip 20 to 22 schools laboratory with full equipments. Then under the AGILE project also some of the schools are procuring laboratory equipments.

Q: On there own?

A: Yes. There is a school improvement grant they presented and it was approved. Some of them, infrastructure repairs, some of them water, some of them ICT facilities, some of them science equipments, so it’s at their discretion. He who wears the shoe knows where it is pinching.

Q: How can you be able to monitor the way the funds are being spent for instance?  

A: You found me, how many days have you been looking for me before you got me? I am always mobile. And I am going back to the field tomorrow to check. So I go the field and check. The M&E teams goes and check everybody who is part of this project has been allocated certain area to go and monitor.

Q: Now what did you do in the education sector which some of us may not be aware to take care of the deficit of teachers 

A: We domesticated a national policy,  Extending the retirement of professional teachers to 65 and the length of service to 40 with some incentives, so that is what we domesticated. And ours is effective from 5th of October 2022. The instant circular will be out soon. So when it come out by January 2023 you will know.

Q: So is not compulsory that a teacher must stay?

A: No its voluntary. 

Q: Let’s look at your committee findings why will a teacher come with a fake certificate to teach and no inspection in the system catches with him till now?

A: It happened before my time, but when I came there were still skirmishes and complains on the issue. What I discovered from my interaction with the teachers is that, there are like 4 to 5 scenarios. One fake grade 2 certificate when the World Bank brought Cipt program there is a top up for professional teachers, so most of them brought fake grade 2 certificates into their record simply to qualify into that top up. One thing they failed to realize is that, if you bring in one fake document, removing it is a challenge, two those of them with a carry over in NCE, didn’t bother to go and finish it, they used other means to get their certificates. So when the institution were written most of this students don’t have updated records. Some of them multiple places of work. There is an instance of a person withdrawing all his salary for about 2 years in Lagos, while he is suppose to be a teacher in Biu, some multiple places. Some of them did not even bother to appear before the committee, some of them failed to bring bank statements because they don’t want to show multiple salaries. You know there are two sides of every story. The Nigerian Union of Teachers confronted me on this matter, but I must commend that committee, they have done an excellent work. When they met with His Excellency, he gave them a ground for a kind of review. So I now laid this conditions, he who knows he or she is innocent should come back and represent. Out of the almost 12,000 of them, do you know how many came for work? 606 and even that quite a number must be pardoned for what His Excellency called pardonable offenses like, lack of appearance, incomplete bank statement and the rest. Only 606, they know what they did. Particularly at that NCE and Grade 2 level, that is where all the damages have happened. At Ministry level establishment its not my duty. Mine is the coordination and monitoring of education policies and school operations.

Promotion benefits is a people service matter, you have to pick it up with the head of service. It’s not something at my desk, its not something that I control. I don’t control issues of personnel, mine is merely school operation, coordination of educational policies and then the monitoring of such policies and day to day running of the education institution. So things like promotion benefit, arrears and then within you could pick that up with the Head of Service. As a commissioner I don’t pay salaries, I am not even in charge of transferring staffs where they go and the rest, I work with what they post. SUBEB and the board deal with teachers, this is a ministry and Ministry staff comes in from the civil service, so they are under the Head of Service of the state. Then the teachers welfare issues are referred to His Excellency through the Head of Service. 

Q: The coordination of policy need a lot of data, the way you reel out figures its indicating of the fact that maybe you have established a database. Did you  a database here that you can work with, if no, how do you get your statistics?

A: I was using the one established by Bestda, Data Education Service for All, its a program that is domesticated in SUBEB and they were there before the coming of the Sangaya board, they are in charge of the mainstreaming the Almajari learner, so I was using their data. Then we have what is called IMS, Information Management System Desk Offices in the ministry in SUBEB in TSB. So I have asked the IMS to give me the record of school enrollment 2019 to date, yes IMS. They are in charge of statistics. So I asked them to update me so that we could see the progress made from 2019 to date, and you can see its significant 57% enrollment and mainstreaming and then retention.

Q: Has there been any improvement in the WAEC results of your students? 

A: Well there is self monitoring system, exam ethics, everybody is involved, police, SSS, civil defense, the examination body and everybody. And each year there are schools that are de-recognized. If they are de-recognized they face the penalty of malpractice, you know things like malpractice like prostitution and stealing are old vices. It’s  not something that is here alone. And I have been here for just 18 months, sorry I came in August 2021 hopefully I spent just about 18 months or there about and its only one academic session. So if I should give you an analyses after seeing one or two exams, it will not be correct analyses. Three years ago I was not here, I came in August 2021 yes. And I have pronounced in my guidelines that any public school principal that allows his school center to be de-recognized should be removed and demoted. That was the pronouncement I made.

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Q: So looking at the private schools, how many do we have registered in Borno State the 27 local government, I believe?

A: There is no record, because there is a proliferation of private schools. That is why we came up with a committee last 2 to 3 months if you notice and its in the media that we have gone for accreditation and re-accreditation of private schools. And we have given everybody up to December 31st 2022 to comply. For now I have signed just 51 certificates. So I want to wait and see by end of December before enforcement starts, how many are there. So there has been no accurate record only figures because there has being so much proliferation of private schools and that is part of the things we are trying to regulate.

Q: Don’t you thing it’s high time you alert them in some radio jingles that anybody who has not registered by December 31st will be sanctioned? 

A: We have, I called all of them sometimes in August this year, August to first week of September or there about. Then we have given them the new guidelines. After giving them the new guidelines, we have worked on form and the rest. I will share work with you and there is a lot of advocacy on tv and the rest, they all know that but we are doing it properly and systematically. We have also brought in other agencies of government to participate, for instance BOGIS, the title of the land most be institutional, Urban Development Board, where they are operating is it conducive for learning, civil defense corps, safe schools initiative, is it being adhere to, then the quality assurance unit of the Ministry of Education and SUBEB are they adhering to curriculum, then the main ministry committee, are they having proper records, Internal Revenue Service, are they paying their taxes, all this with it. And approval will be given by the ministry then the Board of Internal Revenue releases the certificate online. So far 51 certificates are ready and more are being processed as the deadline is approaching.

There is one particular private school that something happened and  the human rights commission told us that a female teacher put a little girl on her laps to be sucking her breast while the woman mishandled the little girl of 5 years and then they said the school is owned by the wife of a former commissioner. And then when the father tried to fight back or protest they intimidated the man, I think the man is half literate or something like that so they started intimidating him and then Barr. Jummai of Human Rights calls and briefed us about the wrong.  we have been expecting the supervisor of private schools here to make a pronouncement since they are not yet in court. Because when the case gets to court people will will not want to speak about it. Has it come to your knowledge, if yes, have you made any pronouncement?

Yes, it has and the matter is before the police Commissioner, so if it’s before the police commissioner I am not at liberty to talk about it. But we investigated the issue and what brought us into the issue is the fact that the story happened within the school, so what happens within the school operation of private schools is the purview of the ministry of education. We sent our most senior guiding counselor and a representative of the private schools and director of quality assurance, together it was a team of 6 to 7 under the private schools committee to go and investigate. So the issue came out and I have forwarded what the finding is to the police commissioner. Because what the woman did is criminal and is between herself and the police. But misconduct within the school we must check, so we have forwarded as appropriate. So at the end of it I am sure they are going to give a statement but we have done as far as our own side is concerned.

Q: Is rape a common phenomenon 

since you came, if yes how you handle it?

A: Most of the reap cases I have heard are within IDP camps, not in schools, most of our schools except for the ones situated in Maiduguri are day schools. We have not heard any. It’s not common and most of the schools government own are not mixed except for few, except for few basically boys girls.

Q: Policy or a mini policy of?

A: Is a policy that have been there since 80s and we came and worked on it. The only places where we mixed them is when we don’t have choices but given the choice we will split them. Rape is not a very big problem in our society, something unheard of, these are rear occurrences. It is something new that came up as a result of poverty and insurgency like prostitution. Prostitution has never being part of our culture, its something very, very rare in this community. When I was growing up you hardly see girls in the street from boarding school they are locked in there houses. And if you want to marry them you are given one or two opportunity to look at them, this is how we are brought up. But with insurgency where there is loss of livelihood, prostitution has come into camp.  We don’t beg for instance. You hardly see anyone from this part begging, it is the responsibility of the family to take care of the elder ones. If you are a son you take care of your mother and father, if you are a husband you take care of your wife. But where they are pushed to the wall, all livelihood lost and they have turned to beggars. You know situation could force ugly things to manifest and things like prostitution very, very unheard of, we take chastity very seriously in this part of the world. But this thing brought it. Then in my own humble opinion this kind of scenarios can be attributed to fetish behavior, fetish behavior is the effect of the social media, when you watch so much pornography and you attribute nudity it create a psychological imbalance in your head, then it forms a sickness and that is what causes this kind of problems you are talking about. So its not uncommon but is very, very rear. And I want to appeal to you as a journalist don’t be in a hurry to throw away the baby with a bath water. Institutions like this have offered very good services, bad luck can come at anytime. And one cannot know the behavior of each and every staff, they are coming from different background. So things like that may happen at times as a result of bad luck. Please don’t be in a hurry to just judge and prosecute. To me what has been said, we don’t want to preempt because its with the police. So anybody who listens to that scenario, if at all it happened, it means that teacher is sick and needs medical help. 

Q: Or it could be fetish too?

A: Fetish behavior itself is a sickness and it’s  the sickness of the social media. In those days when you were growing up. But today you can easily access it, so that sickness is the one that comes with technology and its something that needs to be watched. My advice to the school at this time is that they should emphasis on the issue of referees before they employ teachers. The teachers should have referees of good standing that could stand in for them, they shouldn’t just employ anybody so that this things do not occur. And  once the teacher is found guilty she should be sent out from the teaching profession for good and let the law takes it cause.

Q: How long will it take for the fusion between the sangaya and western education to take place? 

A: You see with emerging technology, they don’t need to be told that they need to know how to read and write to operate a phone. It has become basic necessity  for you to have basic literacy and numeracy, so they have embraced it and they are quite intelligent and eventually we expect them to mainstream which is in order. Now the Sangaya board recently gave them entrepreneurship skills and gave them startup packages. Which is a good thing. Modern tools, require more technology and modern technology requires basic literacy and numeracy, for instance in future now with this our cashless economy, transaction on phones requires a certain degree of literacy, numeracy and financial literacy. So they are willing to go with the modern times, they have been no resistance, they have been willing. But you know the issue of Sangaya education has been misunderstood for long. You have to understand that its a formal education, and it has been there. It is an age old education which has been there since biblical times and it has been in existence only that it has been overtaken by the western education. But is a system and it was what was used during the indirect rule period, it was used in administration, accounting, jurisprudence and all this things. Even in Nigeria anybody who can read and write in any language is not an illiterate.

Q: There was this talk that Goodluck Jonathan who started some Sangaya school here, what killed it? Who stole the money, meant to complete them?

A: It is not yet dead. They are there only that when they are sighted, insurgency now sets in. They are six, I saw one in Gwoza, some in so many places. I know they are six. But we are fixing them. They were there, it was the insurgency that truncated the starting. President Goodluck Jonathan did very well for Sangaya.

Q: You know some people are saying that the contractor just chopped the money and bolted out?

A: No, no, no, most of this school has been built. They have been built, the one in Gwoza I have seen. I am even trying to rehabilitate it for it to pick up.

Q: You cannot remember the 5 other town?

A: No, I want to be sure since I am on record. I have seen Gwoza, I have seen Monguno,  and I have seen Monguno, I have seen some, I can’t just recall but there are some. It  is good and is the way to go.

If you hold political offices without impact, you are useless – Engr. Wakilbe