Kwara State House of Assembly has directed its Committee on Education and Human Capital Development to summon the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) to brief the Committee on the number of teachers in all the primary schools in the State.

The directive followed a motion on notice on the urgent deployment of teachers to primary schools in Kaiama Local Council of the state raised by a member representing Kaiama, Wajibe, Kemanji Constituency, Alhaji Ahmed Ibn Mohammed.

Meanwhile, in view of dwindling federal allocation, Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed has approved the establishment of a Local Government Stakeholders Committee to devise new strategies for managing local government revenues.

Governor Ahmed announced the establishment of the committee at a meeting attended by the Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Isiaka Gold, Head of Service, Hajia Zara Umar, chairmen of the 16 local government councils, labour leaders, officials of the Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs ministry, Local Government Directors of Personnel Management and Treasurers at Government House, Ilorin.

The Committee's mandate, according to Alhaji Ahmed, is to identify fresh strategies for managing and distributing local government revenue to ensure that the timely payment of local government workers and other obligations within the ambits of the law, the specific needs of each council as well as available resources, since the allocation to all levels of governments, including local government councils, is unlikely to improve in the nearest future.

Deputy Speaker Mathew Okedare, who presided over the sitting, explained that the appearance of SUBEB before the Committee would afford the Committee to have enough data about primary schools in the state.

The House equally directed its Committee on Education and Human Capital Development to visit primary schools in all the three Senatorial Districts in the State with a view to having first hand information on the present conditions of primary schools in the State as well as posting of their teachers.

Alhaji Mohammed, who moved the motion, had observed that primary schools in Kaiama had played significant role in moulding the past and current leaders of the nation but expressed sadness that most of the primary schools in the area now lack teachers in core subjects.

He said primary schools in Kaiama required about 687 teachers but presently has 365.

The co-mover of the motion and a Member representing Okuta, Yashikira Constituency Alhaji Adamu Usman blamed the mass exodus of teachers in the area to lack of enough infrastructure and enjoined government to address the infrastructural deficit in the area.

Other members who spoke on the motion explained that the problem was not an exclusive problem to Kaiama LGA but most schools outside the State Capital as he enjoined the House to wade into it with a view to addressing the apparent imbalance in posting of teachers in the basic schools in the State to salvage the Primary Education from the brink of collapse.

The Local Government Stakeholders Committee, according to a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communications, Dr. Muyideen Akorede, is headed by the State Accountant General and comprises the chairmen of the 16 local government Councils, and their Directors of Personnel Management, Treasurers, Labour Unions and Representatives of the Local Government Service Commission.