50 primary schools burnt by insurgents in Borno

The Borno State government has said that 50 primary schools were burnt down by suspected Boko Haram insurgents in various parts of the state since they started their activities in the state.

The state Commissioner for Basic Education, Professor Tijjani Abba-Ali who made this known in an interview with newsmen also confirmed the killing of five pupils  and six primary school teachers in last Monday’s multiple attacks on public schools in Maiduguri, the state capital, adding that some suspected terrorists had raided some primary and secondary schools while students were sitting for the National Examination Council, NECO, killing some of them and their teachers.

A burnt house in Kizara village, in Zamfara state, on June 18, 2013 after a group of bandits attacked the village, killing 48 people.

He said that government had adopted measures to prevent future occurrences of the attacks.

“It was really sad that the hoodlums successfully attacked the schools killing innocent souls.

“This heartless and unjustifiable killing will not be allowed to continue because it will have a negative impact on the education sector of the state,” Abba said.

He said that government had directed all the 27 Local Government Councils in the state to provide security for both students and teachers in schools.

Abba-Ali, who is also the chairman of the state Universal Basic Education Board, BUBEB, pointed out that the government had spent about N140 million on the repairs of the 50 primary schools burnt down by the suspected terrorists in both Northern and Central Senatorial zones of the state, just as it had also initiated partnership with communities and other stakeholders towards safeguarding school structures against such attacks.

The Commissioner who presented the mid term scorecard of Governor Kashim Shettima’s administration, lamented that 10 schools were  initially burnt, but added that the number increased when the reconstruction of the 10 schools commenced.

He however, said that the Federal Government intervened by assisting the state government with   N120 million for the reconstruction of the 10 schools earlier burnt.

He stated that from 2008 to 2011, the state government settled all the outstanding counterpart funding to access about N3.4 billion which was used for the reconstruction, construction and procurement of furnitures to schools under the SUBEB scheme across the 27 local government areas of the state.

Giving further breakdown of the achievements recorded in the sector, the Commissioner said that, 85 schools were constructed through self- help in 2010, while 170 schools were built in 2011, stressing that such schools were selected across the three senatorial district of the state.

On  teachers welfare he said, government had promoted 13, 163 teachers across the state even as it had set up a committee with a view to settling gratuities of teachers who had either died or retired from service.

Furthermore, he said the state governments in conjunction with UNICEF trained 524 teachers and 41, 491 students on HIV awareness programme adding that 12 teachers were trained in India on the use of K-YAN machines in tandem with modern methods of teaching.