Barely months after a series of investigations exposing severe teacher shortages, dilapidated infrastructure, and poor learning conditions in public schools across Yobe State, the state government has commenced plans to establish a new flagship tertiary institution, the Mai Mala Buni College of Integrated Sciences.
The development is contained in a statement shared by Sheriff Almuhajir, Managing Director of the Yobe State Microfinance Bank, who noted that the committee task with the establishment is chaired by the Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Professor Abba Idris Adam.
He added that the committee has visited the proposed project site, located at Damaturu to assess its suitability ahead of construction.
The proposed college is expected to feature modern classrooms, science laboratories, ICT facilities, boarding accommodation and other infrastructure intended to provide integrated education.
The announcement comes against the backdrop of investigations by Maidawa Arewa Media, which documented widespread challenges affecting public schools across the state despite years of government investment.
One investigation published in December 2025 found pupils at Bukar Ali Ibn El-Kanemi Primary and Secondary School in Damaturu sitting on bare floors because of a lack of desks and chairs, despite more than ₦12 billion allocated to education in the state’s 2025 budget and over ₦1.6 billion raised through the Yobe Education Appeal Fund.
A follow-up investigation published three months later found that the conditions remained largely unchanged as schools resumed for a new academic term.
The report documented classrooms without furniture, damaged ceilings, broken windows, inadequate learning materials and a shortage of qualified teachers.
In another investigation conducted across communities in Nangere Local Government Area, Maidawa Arewa Media found schools being operated by a single teacher responsible for multiple classes and subjects.
The investigation reported that despite more than ₦180 billion allocated to education between 2019 and 2025, some rural schools continued to struggle with inadequate manpower, deteriorating infrastructure and poor learning conditions.
Parents, traditional leaders and education stakeholders interviewed during the investigations repeatedly urged the government to prioritise recruiting teachers, improving their welfare and rehabilitating existing schools before initiating new projects.
One community leader remarked that the true condition of education in Yobe could only be understood by visiting rural communities rather than schools in urban centres.
Following these publications, the state government announced a policy banning the transfer of teachers from classrooms to non-teaching Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), a move widely seen as an effort to address teacher shortages across public schools.
However, many of the infrastructural and manpower challenges identified in the investigations remain unresolved.
The latest proposal to establish the Mai Mala Buni College of Integrated Sciences has therefore generated fresh discussion among education stakeholders, who say strengthening existing schools should remain a central priority.
Abdullahi Baba Machina argue that while investing in new institutions could expand educational opportunities, addressing long-standing deficiencies in primary and secondary schools would have a more immediate impact on thousands of pupils currently learning under difficult conditions.
The government has also not disclosed the estimated cost of constructing the proposed college.
Similarly, this newspaper has made repeated efforts to obtain the government’s position on how the new project would align with ongoing efforts to address challenges in existing schools.
Telephone calls and Whatsapp messages placed to the Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, received no response for several days, up-to the time of filling this report.
While the government says the proposed college forms part of its broader education transformation agenda, education advocates, Baba Abdullahi Machina maintain that the success of any new flagship institution will ultimately be judged alongside measurable improvements in the quality of teaching, infrastructure and learning conditions across the state’s existing public schools.
