Borno: More Schools Building Destroyed By BOKO HARAM June 22, 2013 - TopicsExpress

Borno: More Schools Building Destroyed By BOKO HARAM June 22, 2013 7:41 am A total of 50 primary schools have been destroyed by the terrorist group, Boko Haram in the region since their inception. Briefing news men in an interview, the commissioner of education, Borno state, Prof. Tijjani Abba-Ali, said the group has killed over 40 pupils including teachers, setting more than 48 schools building ablaze in the state. The commissioner also disclosed that the group has in their recent attack killed five students and six class teachers, adding that last Monday in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno, students who were writing their NECO exam and their teachers were killed by the terrorist group. burntHe said that government had adopted measures to prevent future occurrences of the attacks. “It was really sad that the hoodlums successfully attacked the schools killing innocent souls. “This heartless and unjustifiable killing will not be allowed to continue because it will have a negative impact on the education sector of the state,” Abba said. He said that government had directed all the 27 Local Government Councils in the state to provide security for both students and teachers in schools. Abba-Ali, who is also the chairman of the state Universal Basic Education Board, BUBEB, pointed out that the government had spent about N140 million on the repairs of the 50 primary schools burnt down by the suspected terrorists in both Northern and Central Senatorial zones of the state, just as it had also initiated partnership with communities and other stakeholders towards safeguarding school structures against such attacks. The Commissioner who presented the mid term scorecard of Governor Kashim Shettima’s administration, lamented that 10 schools were initially burnt, but added that the number increased when the reconstruction of the 10 schools commenced. He however, said that the Federal Government intervened by assisting the state government with N120 million for the reconstruction of the 10 schools earlier burnt. He stated that from 2008 to 2011, the state government settled all the outstanding counterpart funding to access about N3.4 billion which was used for the reconstruction, construction and procurement of furnitures to schools under the SUBEB scheme across the 27 local government areas of the state. Giving further breakdown of the achievements recorded in the sector, the Commissioner said that, 85 schools were constructed through self- help in 2010, while 170 were built in 2011, stressing that such schools were selected across the three senatorial district of the state. On teachers welfare he said, government had promoted 13, 163 teachers across the state even as it had set up a committee with a view to settling gratuities of teachers who had either died or retired from service.