20% of Bauchi teachers are ghost workers – Governor

Governor Bala Muhammed of Bauchi State disclosed on Sunday that up to 20 per cent of teachers on the payroll of the state were ghost workers.

Mr Muhammed made the disclosure in Bauchi while addressing youths to commemorate the 2019 edition of the Day of the African Child.

The governor said that previous administrations in the state opted to enlist ghost workers, although many trained teachers were not having jobs in the state.

Mr Muhammed vowed that his administration would conduct a personnel audit of teachers and also look into frivolous contracts that were awarded by previous administrations.

He said that he was going to wage a total war against those he described as “enemies of the state” who had retarded the development of the state.

Muhammed disclosed that he would prosecute some former top officials of the state’s Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) over their roles in managing the finances of the board.

He lamented that most primary schools in the state had their roofs blown off by windstorms with pupils studying under trees and sitting on the bare floor, in spite of huge resources spent by SUBEB.

“I wonder what the previous administrations were doing while they allowed the infrastructure and education system to degenerate to the lowest ebb.’’

He promised to employ about 1,000 female teachers earlier trained by the state in conjunction with UNICEF and other organisations.

The UNICEF Field Officer in the state, Bhanu Pathak, said that UNICEF in collaboration with SUBEB had trained 120 youths drawn from 14 states and FCT in capacity building.

Mr Pathak, represented by UNICEF Educationalist, Mairama Dikwa, said that the programme was in commemoration of the 2019 Day of the African Child.

He called on the governor to ensure that the 1.2 million out of school children in the state were enlisted in schools, advising the governor to increase budgetary allocation to education.

Mr Pathak also told the governor that UNICEF would be withdrawing from the third phase of the Girl-Child Education scheme being implemented in the state in 2020. (NAN)