In the second part of this report, Nura Faggo reports on how public primary and junior secondary schools in Bauchi state buy basic instructional materials required for teaching and learning. The second segment also explores the condition of service of teachers in the state, most of whom stayed for over 10 years without promotion- until the ongoing one that has been dragging since April.
While pupils and students have had to endure sitting on bare floor to receive lessons, their teachers and especially headmasters and principals across the 16 LGAs are daily confronted with the challenges of sourcing basic instructional materials such as chalks, rulers, dusters/cleaners, attendance registers, dairies, lesson plans and note books, etc required in their schools.
Investigations revealed that the schools are not being provided with basic teaching materials and therefore had to devise means of meeting their demands, to ensure continuous teaching and learning. Teachers buy their lesson plan and note books, and sometimes had to make contributions from their meager earnings to buy chalks, rulers, dusters (cleaners) and sometimes textbooks.
The schools especially those in urban and suburban areas which require at least one carton of chalk weekly now heavily rely on PTA levies, members of School Based Management Committees SBMCs and public spirited individuals to buy the instructional materials.
Most of the schools visited need at least a carton of chalk weekly, the price of which ranges from 900 to 1200 Naira per carton, and also use the PTA levy to buy attendance registers and dairies.
The PTA levy being charged by schools as discovered by our reporters ranges from 20 to 100 Naira per child per term and the payment response rate by parents ranges from 20% to 50%.
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One of the teachers at Garba Muhammed Noma Primary School Bauchi said “For chalks alone we need 15 cartons per term, that is roughly around 15 thousand Naira and we only collect 50 Naira per term from every child, which many of them are unable to pay”.
Chairman of the state universal basic education board professor Yahaya IbrahimYero while reacting to the issue of schools having to purchase basic instructional materials through PTA levy and other sources, said “but honestly I have to tell you that the issue of instructional materials is where we have serious challenge more than even the issue of these structures we are talking about”.
The board’s chairman who spoke through the director planning, research and statistics Abubakar Mansur Abdu maintained that “because, honestly when you go by the Quarterly Mandatory Fund the board is getting from the state government and compare it with the actual demand on the ground the money is grossly inadequate”.
Insecurity in schools
The problem is so rampant especially metropolitan schools that head teachers with the support of SBMCs and PTAs have to fortify the ceilings of their offices by using flanks to prevent the hoodlums from gaining access to cart away valuable items.
Even at that, the hoodlums have found a way of breaking this barrier in schools such as Baba Sidi, Garba Noma, Bakari Dukku in Bauchi metropolis, Central Primary School Alkaleri and Dambam Central Primary School among others carting away valuables such as computers, textbooks, ceiling fans, electricity generator and satellite receivers.
For instance, the assistant head teacher’s office at Garba Noma was burgled more than 10 times in the last two years despite the school’s proximity to a military outpost.
“You know women! The first time they gained access into her office they carted away wrapas and other valuables belonging to her (referring to the assistant head teacher) and since then, the office never knew peace” says one of the teachers who spoke to us on condition of anonymity.
A head teacher at one of the primary schools in Jahun area of Bauchi metropolis even told Radio Nigeria team that he had to take three desktop computers belonging to the school to his house for safe keep because of the persistent burglary by hoodlums in the school.
The problem we learnt is not unconnected to the dearth of watchmen in the schools-which the hoodlums take advantage of and turned some of the classes into smoking joints at night.
For instance, The Kirfi/Cheledi Central Primary School which is the biggest and the oldest in the local government area established in 1938 has only 1 watchman, Central Primary School Alkaleri established in 1942 also has only 1 watchman and Garba Noma also with only 1 operating 365 days a year.
Classes in some of the schools visited have also been turned into public toilets as people easily gain access to defecate due to broken down doors and windows as witnessed at Waziri Mazadu Primary School Dass, Central Primary School Alkaleri and Baba Sidi Primary School Bauchi.
Recently, at a stakeholder meeting on the basic education sub-sector organized by a non-governmental organization Centre for Information Technology and development CITAD the participants mostly members of school based management committees, PTA, and civil society organizations called on the state Universal Basic Education Board to address the insecurity situation to guarantee the safety of pupils, students and educational facilities in public schools.
We are aware schools use PTA levy to buy instructional materials-PTA Chairman
Chairman of Parent Teachers Association in the state who is serving second term Alhaji Jumba Pali acknowledged overcrowding in public schools but was quick to attribute the problem to population surge. “You could get more than 200 pupils in a class, but this could be blamed on high birth rates and the way parents want their children educated”.
Alhaji Jumba Pali who is also the national financial secretary of the PTA also said the association is fully aware that schools rely on PTA levy they collect from pupils to meet their daily demands of instructional materials as the government has not been providing same. “The association no longer collects the PTA levy collected by schools because, we know they use it solve their immediate needs especially those things they require daily. This is why for a very longtime we have been pressuring the government to resume the payment of subvention to education secretaries” said Jumba Pali.
Neglected Teaching Staff
For more than ten years, thousands of primary and junior secondary school teachers under the Bauchi state Universal Basic Education Board across the 20 local government areas have remained stagnant without career progression-until the ongoing promotion that has been lingering since April.
A total of 21,457 teachers were affected by this problem, including the state chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers Comrade Danjuma Saleh whose last promotion was in August, 2008.
In April this year, the state governor Muhammad Abdullahi Abubakar approved the promotion of these teachers to their various appropriate levels, some of whom were even due for up to three promotions.
However five months after this approval, it is not yet uhuru for these teachers as only few of them started receiving the financial benefits, while some of them are still to get even the promotion notification. As at the 24th of October, 2018 only some teachers in Shira, Giade and Zaki, out of the 20 local government areas have had the financial implications of the new promotions implemented in their September salaries.
In the last 10 years, some of these teachers were promoted twice on paper without receiving the financial increase that come along with such career progression.
Their monthly salaries have remained constant since 2015, following the stoppage of payment of annual salary increase and leave grant by the present administration.
Over this period, the teachers underwent series of verifications, during which payment of their salaries were delayed subjecting them to untold hardships in a state, the economy of which depends heavily on the payment of workers’ salaries.
For instance, when 45 year old Abubakar Yakubu (name changed) who teaches at one of the Primary schools in Dass town got promoted from level 12 to 13 in 2012, little did he know that the promotion will remain on paper without any financial increase in his monthly package to better the life of his family.
“For 6 years now as I am talking you, not a single Kobo was added to my salary in respect of that promotion because I am still being paid level 12 salary” recounts Yakubu.
Perhaps the cases of Isiaku Dauda and Awwal Ibrahim (all the names changed) of Kirfi Cheledi and Miri Primary schools in Kirfi and Bauchi Local Government areas who were last promoted in August, 2006 and June, 2009 to levels 07 and 10 are more disturbing.
For 12 and 9 years respectively, these teachers have remained stagnant, worst still being that even the payment of yearly increment on their salaries was stopped since 2015.
Therefore, in the last three years their monthly salaries have remained constant dangling between 39,000 and 40,000 for Isiaka Dauda and 51,000 and 52, 000 for Awwal Ibrahim.
Isiaka Dauda and Awwal Ibrahim are not the only ones affected by this problem, as even the state chairman of the Nigeria union of Teachers Comrade Danjuma Saleh himself has been without promotion for ten years-his last promotion from level 12 to 13 being in August, 2008 until the current one.
As if that was not enough, the government in 2017 responded to outcry by the teachers over nonpayment of leave and transport grant, by making it clear that the money (leave grant) was a privilege.
However, while this report was being compiled the state universal basic education board started releasing promotions letters to the over 21,457 teachers affected by this problem.
As seen in some of the promotions letters obtained by this reporter, the notional date and the financial effect of the single, double and triple promotions according to individual teacher’s case are slated for 18/04/2018.
It was discovered that the board started issuing the promotion letters in June, 2018 but up to the 24th of October when this report was finally compiled teachers in some local governments were yet to receive the promotion notifications. -let alone implementing the financial benefit.
This makes many of the teachers apprehensive as they are still in possession of similar promotion notifications done in the past, the financial implications of which were never implemented.
The chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board Professor Yahaya Ibrahim Yero confirmed that the board is now promoting 21,457 teachers who were stagnant for over 10 years. Yero who spoke through the board’s director of planning research and statistics Mansur Abubakar Abdu claimed that “the salary difference of this 21,457 teachers being promoted if implemented will cost the government 157,792,920.40”.
This story is part of an investigative journalism fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ); the fellowship was funded with the support of Mc Arthur Foundation.
