Our schools are world class – Muoboghare, Education Commissioner

[Mirror]

Prof. Patrick Muoboghare is the Delta State Commissioner for Basic Education. He speaks on the infrastructural renewal in the state's education sector as well as free primary and secondary education. Excerpts:

The newly built GRA Primary School, Asaba.

Schools' infrastructural renewal

Those schools that you have seen are in fulfilment of the vision of the governor of Delta State, who, on coming to power, put in place then a 3-Point Agenda of infrastructural development, human capital development and peace and security. I said then because we have collapsed the 3-Point Agenda to a 1-Point Agenda. The human capital development of the 3-Point Agenda has to do with the school system; that is the education of the child, which is on three legs: the curriculum, school infrastructure and the human capital within the school system – the teachers. The schools in the country generally have deteriorated over the years, so it is not that one governor came in and destroyed them.

So, in Delta State, we said we have to start from somewhere; let us develop the infrastructure so that the children will have a sense of pride in attending schools that are comparable with the ones anywhere in the world. In some of the schools, their entire structures were pulled down. New schools are also being built. A model is the GRA Primary School, Asaba. But Delta State is such a state that whatever you do in Asaba, you also do it in Warri; if you do it in Warri and it is not in Kwale, you are not a performing governor; if it is in Kwale and not in Ugheli, then you hate the Urhobos; if it is in Ugheli and not in Burutu, then the Ijaws are marginalized; if it is in Burutu and not in Agbor, then the Ikas are abandoned. So, unlike some other states where you have a one city state, Delta is a multi-city state, so we spread whatever we have.

The St. Patrick's College building built by Uduaghan in Asaba.

We have different models of schools in the state. There is the St Patrick's model that is 13 in number. We commissioned one (St Patrick Asaba) last year; another one – Nana College, Warri is ready for commissioning; Udemude Secondary School would be ready by July; Owan Secondary School would be ready by August and we will commission others except Oghara by December. These schools are in both the upland and riverine towns. We cannot do worst than this because Delta State has a primary school population of about 330,000 and secondary school population of about 288,000; 1,205 primary schools and 465 secondary schools. Some of these primary schools that we are talking about were built as far back as 1895 like Ogbuafo Primary School. The school was down and we have to relocate it. That is, build a brand new school and transfer the pupils to it.

Technical education

Apart from the primary and secondary schools, we are reviving our technical schools, so that when students complete their first three years in regular schools, they can branch off to the senior secondary schools or come into the technical schools for another three years and do the normal exams before we can that we have qualified technicians. There is another thing that we want to do with the technical schools; there are those out there who have the skills but don't have the certificates, we want to train them and give them the certificates. Also there are those who have the certificates but don't have the skills, we will also train them on the skills. For example, the mechanics who have the skill but don't have the theory, we want them to come to the schools for theoretical knowledge and be proficient, so that we can drive the vision of Delta Beyond Oil.

Modern classroom at the St. Patrick's College, Asaba

Free primary and secondary education

Delta is a very sophisticated state where things that people struggle for in other states are taken as a way of life. Many years ago, we introduced the PhD scholarship programme for any Deltan who makes a first class in any university anywhere in the world but early this year, the Federal Government copied us and gave a few Nigerians. If you must copy from us, you have to make it 100 per cent because 100 per cent of all those who make first in the state are given scholarships to study anywhere in the world. Our free education programme is designed in a way that students don't pay any kind of fees. We even went beyond that to say that WAEC fees are paid by the state government in all the 465 public secondary schools and that amounts to hundreds of millions of naira, annually. Normally, when students pay fees, they are meant to pay teachers and improve on the infrastructure, but we are working on the infrastructure as well as paying salaries and even giving subventions to head teachers and principals to run their schools.

Lecture hour at Abu-Ator Primary School, Asaba.

Sustenance of the policy

We are lucky in Delta State because the present administration which came on board in 2007 completed all projects initiated by its predecessor before embarking on new projects. Ours' is about the only government in Nigeria that did that. We cannot make a law for the incoming government because it is a matter of appropriation. The allocation for my ministry for the payment of salaries of primary and Secondary teachers this year, is N22 billion. So, the governor cannot say when he leaves office in 2015, the incoming governor must budget the same. His successor must have a vision on how to improve on what Governor Uduaghan has done although I know that it will be a tough task to surpass what he has done. So, if his successor cannot surpass it, he should strive to, at least, equal it.

Also, we are not going to force the government that will succeed us to allocate N600 million monthly to the local governments for the payment of salaries of primary school teachers as we are doing now. The payment of salaries of primary school teachers is the responsibility of the local governments but because they are unable to cope with the allocation that comes to them from the Federal Government, the state government decided to give them a monthly grant of N600 million which comes to N7.2 billion per year. If this money has been invested further on infrastructural development, you can imagine how far we would have gone. But how can we do that when teachers who are teaching our children have not been paid. This is why the national body of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) is against any attempt to abrogate the states/local governments' joint account because if such happens, the teachers will suffer as most local

National Mirror