The 42 girls who escaped from Boko Haram after their abduction at
Government Secondary School, Chibok on April 14, 2014 have graduated
from private schools in Plateau and Katsina States. The girls were secretly enrolled at Bethel International Christian
Academy and Ulul-Albab Science Secondary School, Katsina for Christians
and Muslims respectively, through a joint sponsorship by the Borno
State Government and a non-profit humanitarian organization, Girl Child Concern, chaired by Dr Mairo Mandara.
The girls were part of the 56 girls who escaped within days after the
Boko Haram abducted 276 final year female students around midnight
while the girls were writing the 2014 West African Senior Secondary
School Certificate Examination.
Some of the girls jumped out of moving truck while others fled from where the girls were detained in insurgent territories.
Governor Kashim Shettima attended a special graduation ceremony
organized for the girls at A Class event Centre in Abuja on Tuesday.
The event had in attendance
the 42 Chibok escapees and 34 other vulnerable girls exclusively
sponsored by the Girl Child Concern with support from some humanitarian
partners.
Speaking,
Shettima said
the Chibok abduction had exposed the poor standard of public school education in Borno State which was his greatest concern.
”One other painful aspect of the Chibok abduction tragedy, was that
it exposed my greatest concern, which is the poor quality of our public
schools. Since 2014, my priority has always been about the rescue of all
our abducted girls but then, we saw some of them granting interviews in
local languages due to problems of expression in English and it was not
the fault of the girls.
”That was the quality of education they were provided. I live with a huge
embarrassment concerning the quality of education provided by public
schools in Borno State as it is case in many other States. I do not
intend to make excuses but as those familiar with what I met on ground
would corroborate, I inherited a disaster in the name of basic
education.”
The situation was so bad that the amount of money being allocated for
feeding boarding students across all secondary schools in Borno State
was a paltry N20m per month which amounted to less than five naira per
meal for a student. Of course, we have since addressed that in 2012 by
jerking up the allocation from N20m to N100m per month.
”
We are drastically repositioning our educational system with focus on
totally changing basic education which is the most important step in the
education of any child
“I actually asked Dr Mandara not to even tell me the schools the
girls were attending. I used to even speak with the girls and their
principals on phone but I never asked to know their schools until today
that we are gathered for their graduation,” Shettima said.
Most of the girls are said to have obtained credits after writing the
2017 May/June WASSCE which makes them eligible for admission into
tertiary schools. Governor Shettima has promised to sit Dr Mandara and
the girls to discuss their future, promising huge support from Borno
State Government.
Highlights of the graduation ceremony were series of drama, songs
and presentation of poems by the graduands with prizes presented to
those with the best moral and academic records based on assessments by
the two schools.
DAILY POST