Bauchi: SUBEB, UNICEF train Katagum SSOs, inspectors on safer school process 

Bauchi State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), in collaboration with the Bauchi Field Office of the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), has sensitised twenty-five School Support Officers (SSOs) and Inspectors to ensure safety in all schools in Katagum LGA to promote conducive learning and teaching. 

The sensitisation was a step-down dissemination of the outcome of a survey on safer schools conducted by UNICEF which was held at the State level recently. 

Katagum LGA has a total of 173 primary schools and Thirty – One Upper Basic Schools known as Junior Secondary Schools. 

The Education Secretary of Katagum Local Government Education Authority, Adamu Alhaji Mohammed, who facilitated the step-down training in Azare, stressed that school safety is a serious issue that SUBEB and UNICEF are toying with. 

According to him, “We are here to step down what we were taught during the State Level dissemination held in Bauchi last week. As you can see, we have gathered here, Eighteen SSOs and Seven Inspectors. These officers are in charge of the Primary and Upper Basic Schools that we have in the LGA.”

He stressed that the stakeholders must ensure that the schools are safe for the children to learn and teachers to teach effectively. 

According to him, some of the problems peculiar to Katagum LGA are open schools as many of the schools are not fenced which has led to encroachment by people thereby threatening the safety of the environment. 

Another major issue highlighted is inadequate WASH facilities in all of the schools in the area which is forcing the children not to be in school. 

He lamented that the LGEA does not have a WASH Officer but the LGA has a department which from time to time does come to the aid of the Authority on the issue of WASH facilities which he said has not been good enough. 

Adamu Alh Mohammed said that the aim is to ensure that the SSOs and the Inspectors are knowledgeable, particularly about the safe school which is promoting safety in the schools across the LGA. 

“The LGA is supporting the SSOs and Inspectors in the area of service delivery particularly regarding school safety in order to promote effective and efficient learning and teaching,” he said.

He also stressed that the lack of understanding between communities has led to a threat to the existence of the schools, particularly among Nomadics, assuring however. that the Authority is doing everything possible to settle the situation. 

The ES called on School Base Management Committees (SBMC) to step up its functions to ensure that the schools are safe for teaching and learning. 

He commended SUBEB and UNICEF for the training which he said has exposed the inadequacies militating against safer schools in the area assuring that the LGEA will ensure that it collaborates with relevant stakeholders to overcome the issues. 

Some of the SSOs and Inspectors expressed gratitude to SUBEB and UNICEF for the training, saying that it has exposed them to the new approaches required to have safer schools in the area. 

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