Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed has been applauded by the Federal Government for the proactive steps he has taken towards providing a stable environment for educational transformation in the North East zone of the country.

Minister of State for Education, Hon. Emeka Nwajiuba made this known during the flag-off of the construction of the North East Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Model School in Bauchi at which he reaffirmed the commitment of the Buhari Administration towards improving the quality of basic education in the country.

The minister’s remark came in the wake of the provision of 6.7 hectares of land for the construction of Northeast UBEC Model School, by the Administration of Senator Bala Mohammed.

Addressing a large crowd of senior government officials, stakeholders in education, traditional rulers and religious leaders and others, the minister noted Bauchi State has historically been a model; a status which he said would be reinforced when the state becomes the connecting point for all the states around the zone that would align with the program.

“You will indeed have made yourself the real model; Bauchi State. This school is a testimony to the Governor’s resilience. It did not take him a moment to make sure that the land originally earmarked for this project is immediately returned to UBEC for the purpose of facilitating the project”, he said, to the applause of the audience.

Asked to justify the choice of Bauchi State, the minister said: “Bauchi State we know actually has the capacity to reach out to the rest of the North East. Apart from that Bauchi has a lot of the requirements that are inherent in what we are trying to do: connectivity, ability to connect to others and the centrality of its own and now we have arrived at a peaceful governor so it makes it even more imperative and that is exactly why we are here”.

In his remarks at the occasion, Governor Bala Mohammed disclosed the decision to release the land was borne out of his determination to fast track the execution of the project.

He described the project as a perfect example of meaningful partnership between the federal government and the state in the provision of qualitative education to students.

He said the deployment of information communication technology (ICT)-based facilities in school management and administration, is another landmark as it will check absentees and facilitate monitoring and evaluation mechanisms in addition to ensuring better acquisition of knowledge especially in critical subjects.

He thanked the Federal Ministry of Education and Universal Basic Education Commission for citing the project in the state, pledged to ensure the maintenance of the school.

The Executive Secretary, Universal Basic Education Commission Dr. Hamid Bobboyi had earlier explained that the introduction of the Model School Initiative is a turning point in the delivery of qualitative education within the basic education sub-sector by providing conducive environment for effective teaching and learning.

Dr Bobboyi said the model school will be equipped with the state-of-the-art ICT devices to include interactive boards, computers, ipads, tablets and internet enabled television sets among others.

He disclosed that in its desire to ensure that the model school projects are delivered to specifications, in addition to monitoring visits to the sites by the staff of the Commission, SUBEBs and other relevant stakeholders; the Commission has engaged the services of competent consultants in the various fields of the construction industry to supervise the projects.

The UBEC Executive Secretary said already two models were proposed under the Model School Initiative for the basic education sector and acknowledged the support of Governor Bala Mohammed to the project.