Borno raises panel on reopening of schools over Boko Haram

THE Borno State government said it has raised a high-powered 13-member panel that will put in “effective machinery” for the reopening of schools closed over a year ago because of Boko Haram insurgency in the state.

Some of the closed schools, it said, have been converted by the State’s Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) to accommodate over 175,000 Internally-Displaced Persons (IDPs) at the Maiduguri and Biu resettlement camps.

A statement issued and made available to newsmen in Maiduguri by the Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Usman Jidda Shuwa, said the committee is to work out the modalities for the reopening of the schools at the beginning of next academic session when the students might have lost two academic years.

The statement reads: “This 13-member committee is given three weeks within which to submit its report to the government, after which an action would be taken on the reopening of the schools.”

The panel, which terms of reference include identifying the total number of public schools and advise government on how best these schools could be effectively used for academic activities, is also expected to consider those schools currently accommodating IDPs.

It also has to evaluate how best the internally-displaced students/pupils at the camps and those staying with relatives in the host communities could appropriately be relocated to the existing public schools in Maiduguri metropolis.

Moreover, it is expected to make recommendations on how the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) should post relevant teaching members of staff to secondary and primary schools in view of the existing security situation in the state. “This committee is equally tasked with the responsibility of liaising with security agencies on provision of adequate security to the IDPs and the schools when reopened and to recommend measures that it may find necessary for the effective and smooth achievement of the set objectives,” Shuwa further said in the statement.

The panel is headed by Alhaji Gambo Gubio and has as members other notable personalities in the state, who include Dr. Bulama Mali Gubio, Alhaji Haruna Idrisa Timta, Alhaji Musa Inuwa Kubo, Alhaji Abubakar Musa, Alhaji Lawan Shettima Benisheikh, and Mohammed Kauji, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education.