Gombe State Ministry of Education is to commence a 14-day census to gather crucial data on public schools with a view to addressing educational problems.

Director of Planning, Abdulmuminu Umar, who disclosed this at the opening of training for the enumerators at Teachers Resource Centre (TRC), Kwami, emphasised the importance of the exercise, stating that it would serve as a guide for effective planning, and identifying the number of out-of-school children and gaps in the education sector.

According to him, the ministry will deploy 360 enumerators to conduct the census, which would be monitored digitally using unique identification codes for each school.

He added that there are 669 public primary, junior, and senior secondary schools in the state, noting that the census would be conducted in all schools, where pupils, students, teachers, and infrastructure would be counted.

“This will enable the ministry to plan effectively, project instructional materials and infrastructure needs, and ensure fair allocation and improve teacher-to-student ratios deployment,” Umar said.

Also speaking, Executive Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Babaji Babadidi, represented by a full-time member of the board, Gambo Aliyu, noted that this year’s census differs significantly from the previous ones, due to the influx of people from across the country into Gombe, which has overstretched school facilities.

He added that the funds committed to this year’s exercise have tripled compared, stating that the aim was to obtain accurate data on the number of pupils and students.