@34,Taraba has made progress in education, though more needs to be done-Dr Azuaga
From Daniel Mtindiga Jalingo.
A renowned Academic Don Dr. Chia Azuaga of Taraba State University Jalingo, has commended Taraba State’s strides in the education sector.
In an interview with Worldview Magazine, Dr. Azuaga stated that at 34 years of existence, Taraba has made tremendous progress in the education sector even though some areas like infrastructure, staff/students welfare needs improvement.
“By my own assessment, we have made tremendous progress but there are areas that needs improvement. As at the time Taraba State was created, we had a smaller number of schools. I do know that we had College of Agriculture Jalingo, College of Education Jalingo now College of Education Zing, these were basically the Tertiary institutions the State had.
“During that time any Taraban who needed to attain university education could either go to University of Maiduguri, University of Jos, Benue State University Makurdi, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria and the host of others but as at today, we have a handful of tertiary institutions both State owned and Federal. There is Taraba State University Jalingo, Federal University Wukari, Kwararafa Community University and the newly established Taraba State University of Tropical Agriculture Sciences and Climate Action Gembu. There is also College of Nursing and Midwifery, College of Health and Technology Takum, Federal Polytechnic Bali among many others. So, in terms of quantity, we have made tremendous progress but there is need to improve on the quality.” He stated.
He further, lauded the educational reforms/policies of the current administration cutting across tertiary education tuition fee slash and the compulsory primary/post primary school free education adding that, the new wave will go a long way to increase enrollment and also, address financial burdens of parents/students.
“ You know, education is a social service and not a money-making venture so, the slashing of tuition fee at the tertiary education level and the declaration of compulsory free education at the basic levels is a good step. One of the advantages of such a policy is the increase in enrollment. If you go to our public schools today, you will notice that there is an increase in population of pupils and students because the burden of school fees has been shouldered by Government so, it’s commendable.
“Though more burden will be on government because hitherto, students in tertiary education were probably paying 100% of their tuition fee but now, they are paying 50% due to the reduction policy and the little tokens that primary and secondary schools students were paying has also been taken away. This implies that government is going to fund basic education 100% and tertiary education, 50% and you know that’s a great deal,” he said.
He however, urged parents to take advantage of the opportunity and enroll their children/wards even as he called on students to complement Government’s effort by showing more commitments to studies to acquire knowledge and put to use.
