The Adamawa State Government has begun fencing government secondary schools, particularly those in rural communities, as part of efforts to protect pupils and teachers from kidnapping and other security threats.
The Executive Chairman of the Adamawa State Universal Basic Education Commission (ASUBEC), Dr Murtala Umar, disclosed this to journalists in Yola on Thursday, saying the government was strengthening security measures across schools in the state.
Umar said the fencing project was ongoing, adding that the government planned to provide tighter security and train teachers to identify potential threats and take appropriate preventive measures.
“Fencing of all government secondary schools is ongoing now. Watertight security is going to be provided, and teachers are going to be trained on security tips to enable them to detect when a problem is coming and take proactive measures,” he said.
The ASUBEC chairman also announced plans to recruit an additional 3,000 teachers to address staffing shortages in the state’s education sector.
He explained that the recruitment would be community-based to reduce the problem of teachers leaving rural schools for urban centres after receiving their postings.
According to Umar, the government adopted the approach to ensure that teachers recruited for schools in rural communities would be drawn from the areas where the schools are located.
“The next recruitment is strictly going to be community-based. This is because when teachers are recruited and posted, they transfer to towns, leaving schools in rural areas with little staff,” he said.
He added that the strategy was intended to improve teacher retention and ensure that pupils in remote communities had access to adequate teaching staff.
Umar said the state government had also prioritised infrastructure development through funding accessed and utilised from the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), which he said had supported the construction of more than 25,000 classrooms across the state.
He further disclosed that the government recruited more than 4,000 teachers for primary and post-primary schools between 2021 and 2023.
According to him, another batch of 5,000 teachers had recently completed the recruitment process, although he did not provide further details about their deployment.
The planned recruitment of 3,000 additional teachers is expected to complement the government’s efforts to address staffing gaps, particularly in rural schools, while the ongoing fencing project seeks to strengthen the protection of learners and education workers against insecurity.
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