The Adamawa State Government has begun fencing schools, especially in rural communities, to strengthen security and protect pupils and teachers against kidnapping and other threats.
The Executive Chairman of the Adamawa State Universal Basic Education Commission, Dr Murtala Umar, disclosed this to journalists in Yola on Thursday, noting that the initiative was part of the government’s efforts to improve safety in schools.
Umar said work on fencing government secondary schools was already underway, adding that authorities would also strengthen security measures and equip teachers with the skills to identify and respond to potential threats.
He said, “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.”
The ASUBEC chairman also announced plans to recruit an additional 3,000 teachers to address personnel shortages in the state’s education sector.
He explained that the forthcoming exercise would adopt a community-based approach to prevent the recurring situation in which teachers posted to rural schools relocate to urban centres, leaving schools in remote communities understaffed.
He said, “The next recruitment is strictly going to be community-based.
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“This is because when teachers are recruited and posted, they transfer to towns, leaving schools in rural areas with little staff.
“We introduced the community-based recruitment strategy to ensure that only those based in the areas where the schools are located will be recruited.”
Umar said education remained a major priority of the state government’s development agenda.
He attributed improvements in school infrastructure to the state’s access to and utilisation of funds from the Universal Basic Education Commission, which he said had supported the construction of more than 25,000 classrooms across the state.
The commission’s chairman further disclosed that over 4,000 teachers were employed in primary and post-primary schools between 2021 and 2023, while another recruitment exercise involving 5,000 teachers had recently been completed.
“Between 2021 and 2023, we recruited more than 4,000 teachers in our primary and post-primary schools. The good news is that we have just finished the recruitment of another batch of 5,000 teachers.
“This is the work the present administration is doing in the education sector,” he said.