The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) Governorship Candidate, Malam Garba Umar, Yobe, on Friday promised to ensure one ratio 40 teacher -student in schools, if elected.
Umar, who made this known at a news conference in Damaturu, said overcrowding in schools would not be tolerated under his administration.
“We will ensure by God’s Grace that all classrooms accommodate not more than 40 students. My administration would provide adequate and qualified teachers in the schools in the state.
“For us to achieve that, I am of the opinion that, we have to go back to the system of establishing teacher training institutions that had been abandoned,” he said.
The candidate also pledged to restore the lost glory of education in the state by providing additional schools to accommodate alarming rate of out-of-school children.
He promised to rehabilitate all dilapidated educational structures and upgrade the state’s educational system for its products to become internationally competitive.
Umar expressed concern that the state was indebted to the tune of N100 billion by successive administrations with nothing tangible to show.
“We intend to be very professional and judicious in managing the state’s resources. We will not allow a small group of people to be short-changing our state from its creation to date.
“They have been pilfering and mismanaging our resources. We have not been getting value for our money,’’ the candidate said.
He noted with dismay that the state was one of the few states in the country that had yet to implement the N30, 000 new minimum wage.
Umar said his administration would carry out qualitative projects that would stand the test of time rather than projects that become dilapidated even before usage.
The candidate also pledged to support mechanised agriculture as against the current subsistence farming in most parts of the state.
He added that fertilizers and other farm inputs would be available for farmers on time to boost their productivity.
