The Bauchi State Government says it has settled the backlog of N421 million direct school feeding debts to contractors to ensure a regular supply of food to students.

Dr. Aliyu Tilde, the state Commissioner for Education, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Bauchi on Monday.

He said the government has introduced food monitors in boarding secondary schools involved in the project to ensure the supply and delivery of quality food items to the schools.

He said that the food monitor policy has significantly brought sanity in the project as students are now being properly and adequately fed with good and quality meals.

According to him, the ministry has engaged private marketers for the supply of foodstuffs to ensure efficient and maximum control on the regular supply of food to schools.

He explained that the government recently engaged the services of the Amalgamated Bauchi traders and Artisans Multipurpose Cooperative Union Ltd., to handle supplies and delivery of food items to the schools.

“I commend their resilience and punctuality as their performance has changed the narratives for the better,” he said.

He noted that N4.2 million was recently generated as revenue collected from proprietors of private schools as their annual renewal and purchase of application forms.

“We achieved this feat through constant checking on the private schools' obligations before clearance,” he added.

Tilde said the government created additional Area Education Offices, involved School Managers in Policymaking, and directed all schools to intensify efforts in the teaching of the 3RS (Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic subjects).

NAN reports that the Bauchi State government recently trained no fewer than 1,200 teachers on teaching methodology of key subjects which include Physics, Chemistry, and Biology to boost their performances.