The Niger State Government in north-central Nigeria has reaffirmed its commitment to enhancing the education sector as part of its ongoing efforts to provide quality education to its citizens by reinstating the boarding status of Government Science School, Izom, Niger State.
The Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Dr Hadiza Asabe Mohammed, made this known over the weekend during the 50th anniversary celebration of the school organised by the alumni, Izom Old Boys Association (IZOBA), to inaugurate their projects embarked upon to give back to their alma mater, in the school premises in Izom, Gurara local government.
Mohammed, who said she was given the power by the Niger State governor, Mohammed Umar Bago, to reinstate the boarding status, was responding to the request by IZOBA that the school should be returned to its former status quo as a boarding school. She also assured that with the governor’s push, insecurity is wearing away in the state.
It would be recalled that the school, opened in 1975, was closed along with others by the Niger State Government between 2021 and 2023 as a result of bandits’ attacks on other schools. When it was reopened, it was converted to a day school.
According to the Commissioner: “For everybody that knows what is happening in Niger State, we want to appreciate our farmer governor for the push he is giving to actually handle the issue of insecurity. Most of our closed-down schools are now reopened because as he is pushing up, the insecurity is wearing away, and that is what gave me the strength to reopen the school today.
“The school has been closed down for three good years, students have been dispersed, a lot of them now we don’t know where they are, and every day we have been crying about out-of-school children. This is the only way we can bring our children back to school. His Excellency has mandated me where I think it fit to be reopened, it should be opened.
“We are not just reopening on the ministry level; we are collaborating with local government chairmen and community stakeholders to make sure that we have their buy-in for the reopening of this school. As you can hear the echo from one of the community leaders assuring that once we have opened the school, the issue of insecurity has disappeared from our system. That is why I gave the pronouncement by the powers given to me by His Excellency that Izom Science has been opened today as a boarding school.
“I have spoken to the students to be good ambassadors of the school. They will also want to be the alumni. You have generals, you have medical doctors, you have professors. Count it, all arms of the professions are represented here, and I ask them, they will also want to be like them, and the Lord will see them through.”
Earlier, Professor Abdulkadir Abubakar, President of IZOBA, while making the demands on behalf of the alumni, said: “Today, we gather to celebrate the culmination of our efforts to give back to our alma mater. These projects, which include the construction of toilets, refurbishing and construction of classroom desks, boreholes, donation of textbooks to the library, and supplying chemicals and reagents for the chemistry, physics, and biology laboratories, demonstrate our commitment to improving the learning environment and enhancing the educational experience for the students of Izom Secondary School.
“At this juncture, we request that the school be returned to its former status quo as a boarding school. The school also faces the problem of power supply. We passionately appeal that the school should be supplied with dedicated transformers to restore constant power supply.”
Meanwhile, Prof. Ibrahim Dantani Wushishi, the Registrar and Chief Executive of the National Examinations Council (NECO) and an alumnus of the school, called on the governor of Niger State, Mohammed Umar Bago, to register NECO for Niger State senior secondary school students because of the present economic landscape.
He said: “Given the nature of the economic landscape of the country, it is very hard for parents to make ends meet. Providing food and drinks, providing shelter, is difficult for parents. Paying school fees is very difficult for parents, talk less of when it comes to paying examination fees, and some of these examination fees are not exactly as the examination bodies have set them.
“The schools will demand more in order to be able to take care of certain things in the institution because invigilators are there, and some of the staff that are also in charge of the examination are there for them to do certain things. That is why you find some states taking responsibility for paying secondary school candidates’ registration fees because parents will not be able to afford this payment. Before, when the economic landscape was good, of course, our parents didn’t care. They would go to the farm, sell their farm produce, and pay for our school fees. But it is not the case now. A farmer can go to the farm and is not even sure that the produce will be good enough to feed the family, talk less of taking it to the market to sell and do some other things for the family. This is a very big factor.
“I’m calling on the government of the state, if it is not sponsoring candidates for examinations, it should sponsor candidates to sit for the NECO examination, particularly the senior school certificate examination school-based. It will assist a lot because we have candidates that are very good, who become medical practitioners, and engineers who will contribute to society. If not assisted to write this examination, they finish school and remain at home and become a local champion, and maybe because the person is intelligent, can even be a problem to society. So the government should assist in paying for candidates.
“Particularly, I want to request the governor to assist in paying the NECO registration fee for candidates of our senior secondary schools in Niger State in raising a lot of our professionals to contribute to the development of society. Just like we are witnessing today, we have gathered, we had passion, the government had passion. This institution was chosen to be converted to a science college because we had the largest farm and the curriculum was so planned that it wouldn’t interrupt our classes.”
For Umar Shuaibu, Former Coordinator of the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AMMC), also an illustrious alumnus of the school, revealed that most products of the school have gone to different countries of the world to study and have deep knowledge of science.
According to him, developed countries are doing well because of their background in science education.
He said upgrading science would only be possible through science education, saying that because of the importance of science in national development, there was a need for concerted efforts to encourage science education. He also assured that despite the lost glory, IZOBA would ensure that the previous standards are brought back to the school.
On his part, Hon. Umar Faruq, Head of Liaison Office of NNPC to the National Assembly, and a member of IZOBA class of 1992, said: “I belong to the 1992 set of GSC Izom here and I was the house captain of Minna house then. One time I went to nine local governments and 99 wards, and I shed tears. Most of our secondary schools, the roofs have gone, there are no chairs, no windows. So what I say is, I’m not happy with the structure, there is room for improvement, and the government cannot do it alone, people like me and you.
“Where we are today, if this school did not give us a certificate, we wouldn’t be here. What do we offer back to the school? This is what I think we should be thinking about generally, all of us. We are happy for this initiative, whatever you see here is courtesy of IZOBA. I will advise each and every school to create this type of association so that they will come back to take care of their schools.”
ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
and then