Gombe’s education and health sectors have seen improvements in recent years due to initiatives implemented in line with Development Agenda for Gombe State 2021-30, which seeks to enhance access and quality of services. In the 2023 state budget, N14.8bn ($35.3m) was allocated to health care and N22.7bn ($54.1m) to education. The largest share of health care funding will go to the construction of three hospitals in the three senatorial districts. Meanwhile, five educational institutions are being upgraded to model schools.
The budget allocation for education increased by 60% between 2020 and 2021, in line with the government’s promise to invest more to improve critical learning facilities. The rise in funding has supported the construction, renovation and supply of equipment in 584 classrooms in 156 schools across the state, as well as improved water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure, laboratory equipment and instruction materials.
In addition to state and federal budgets, social services funding also comes from partner organisations. For example, the World Bank and other international partners have provided financing for the Universal Basic Education Commission programme. The health care sector also receives support from development partners to enhance its capacity through technical assistance, vaccine provision and other programmes.
Health
The federal government’s National Strategy Health Development Plan II 2018-22 is supported by the state’s social health programme, GoHealth. Through the scheme, employers and the government contribute towards the health plan of the workforce, with 50,000 state civil servants and their dependants already enrolled. Another programme, the Equity, was launched in 2019 to provide free coverage to poor and vulnerable residents, with 25,000 people enrolled in the first year and a further 40,000 expected in 2022.
A 2019 survey by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development covering 56,401 households with 640,725 people revealed that the state’s main disease burdens included malaria, diarrhoea and typhoid. Accessibility remained a significant challenge, with travel times to health facilities between 40 minutes and nine hours. Gombe continues to see an increase in both communicable diseases, such as meningitis and measles, and non-communicable diseases, such as malnutrition, diabetes, hypertension and cancer. The insecurity in the north of the country has also led to a rise in displaced persons in the state, with outbreaks of ebola and lassa fever, as well as the Covid-19 pandemic, exacerbating established challenges.
As of 2021 the state had two tertiary hospitals, 23 general hospitals and 592 primary health care clinics. There were 43 pharmacies, 75 private hospitals and 260 patent medicine stores with 69 traditional health practitioners, 94 midwives, 129 traditional birth attendants, 140 doctors, 559 community health workers and 743 nurses registered across facilities, with a high prevalence of unlicensed practitioners across the state.
Education
The education system in Gombe State is based on the national framework, modified in 2018. Children are enrolled in primary education at age six, which lasts six years. Students can then choose to continue into tertiary education in universities, or through diploma and certificate courses in polytechnics and colleges. There are also technical and vocational education options at the tertiary level.
As of 2016 Gombe State had 1378 public primary schools and 234 private primary schools, which catered to 53% of the school-age population, according to the most recent figures provided by the government. Out of almost 1.4m children between the ages of five and 19, an estimated 725,597 were enrolled in school in 2018.
At the tertiary level, Gombe State University has five faculties: arts and social sciences, education, science, law and pharmaceuticals. It has undergraduate and graduate programmes. It also offers medical degrees at the College of Medical Sciences aimed at developing more trained staff to work in health facilities.
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