Open Letter To The Governor Of Bauchi State,His Excellency Sen Bala Muhammad Abdulkadir By Shehu Ahmed Buwayi, Bakin Kasuwa, Azare, Bauchi State
Read what Shehu Ahmed Said On The Letter Below;
Your Excellency,
RE: WITHDRAWAL OF THREE HUNDRED AND ONE (301) STUDENTS OF GOVERNMENT COLLEGES AZARE, KAFIN MADAKI, SAKWA AND TORO, BAUCHI STATE SPECIAL SCHOOLS MANAGEMENT BOARD (SSMB).
I view with disdain, the purported intention of the Bauchi State Commissioner of Education, Dr. Tilde, to expel such a gigantic number of brilliant students of the SSMB.
It’s disheartening and unethical to allow such number of students to add to the population of out – of – School Children in one of the educationally disadvantage states in Nigeria.
Education according to J. S.Farrant (2001) is “… the process of learning to live as a useful and acceptable member of the community to which one belongs.” Hence, the provision of Qualitative Education to everyone is a Constitutional Rights to all Nigerians, especially those at the Basic Education stage which the victims of Dr. Tilde’s policy are qualified for.
The reasons given by the Hon. Commissioner of Education is failure of the 301 students in the Four (4) Colleges was their inability to get the cut off marks at examination conducted by the Bauchi State Ministry of Education, referred to as Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
I inquisitively visited the 4 Schools and the irony is, while the students with high performance records at the schools were the victims of the MOE/BECE; the ones whose performance was below average were successful.
This scenario pegs for many questions, as to whether the BECE was used to victimized the children of the oppositions or it’s an avenue used to gain political fortune as we are in the elections period. Whatever be the case, BECE’s unprofessional actions should be revisited, please!
Rumours going round, Your Excellency Sir, that Dr. Tilde is working for you and is protecting your interests, for the fact that despite Tide’s abysmal performance, your administration still retains him and finds him worthy to continue sabotaging our Education.
Tilde’s negative policies on our Educational system was very much clear in the following instances:
1). Withdrawal of payment of NECO and WAEC exams fees, which affected the poor parents;
2).Deboarding of a dozens of schools, hitherto that brought unity amongst citizenry;
3).Motivation of teachers for optimum performance were neglected; and
4).Disrespect to Members of Bauchi State House of Assembly is no more secret.
Inspite of all these, your administration saw nothing wrong with the Hon. Commissioner of Education.
Your Excellency, Dr. Tilde should be made to understand that nobody is indespensable in Bauchi state; there are thousands of Dr. Tildes even better than him in the state; he should not be allowed to make your Government unpopular in a democractic era.
Your Excellency should be aware that, the leadership of Parents Teachers Associations (PTAs) of the 4 Schools have visited the Chairperson of the SSMB to solicit for understanding with real situations on ground to reverse the unpopular Tilde’s decision, but to no avail.
I think if Dr. Tilde’s actions is to save money for the state, education sector is not supposed to be the place, the sector deserve long term investment. ‘If Education is expensive, then let him try ignorance.’
This is the reason for the need to appoint professional educationist as commissioner for education, such as retired Permanent Secretary or Director/Principal that grew up in the system to produce good results.
PRAYER:
I humbly and most respectfully pray for the consideration and approval of the following:-
1).To suspend the punitive actions of the Honourable Commissioner of Education;
2). Allow them to rewrite BECE examinations, if possible to be conducted by different body at the expense of the parents involved; and
3). Set an independent committee of Professionals to look into the marked papers and compare them with the students performance in the school.
The approval of I to III above can motivate the students and reassure parents that the Bauchi State Government is a listening administration.
Your Excellency, if there is any Governor in the history of Bauchi State that inherits Education Management from his family, is you: Your Senior Brother late Malam Yusuf Mohammad Baba of blessed memory was an excellent administrator of education.
His products gained prominence locally and international, different professions in the country. The former Head of Service of the Federation, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Justice of the Federation, the scores of Honourable Ministers including the incumbent Honourable Minister of Education, Medical Doctors, Engineers, Technocrats, Academiancs, Ambassadors, etc his were his students.
The late Malam Y. M. Baba, a religious leader per excellent and traditional ruler to the core, achieved these feat through special qualities from home and acquired some from the schools:
He was known for pacience, decorum, support, carrot and stick approach and guidance and counseling of the students.
Please, emulate Your Senior Brother’s stalling qualities. Invest on your people, don’t discourage them, shun the experimentalist that are obnoxious nature. Loosing such a number of students (301) from Special Schools is suicidal to educationally disadvantage state like BAUCHI State.
The past state visionary leaders encouraged Educational development by providing windows for remedial studies, encouragement instead of discouragement, they motivated instead discouraged.
Thank you and God bless.
