From Mustapha Adamu, Kano
To further strengthen its newly implemented policy of free and compulsory education, the Kano state government has flagged off the disbursement of N148 million to no fewer than 1,400 public secondary schools.
Recall that the state governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje had last year implemented the policy, tagged Free and Compulsory Primary and Basic Education Policy in the state.
Speaking at the flagg off of the disbursement of the fund to mark the Kano Education Day ceremony, held at the government house yesterday, governor Ganduje said the Kano Senior Secondary School Management Board and Science and Technical Schools Board are among the beneficiaries.
According to him, his administration has accorded utmost priority on education sector in view of its importance to the development of any society.
He explained that the priority given to the sector led to the introduction of free and compulsory education policy in the state, noting that the issue of funding is very important in the implementation of the policy.
He added that his administration has introduced a lot of policies for the development of education, but without funding, the policies can not be achieved.
Ganduje further explained that his government decided to disburse the fund to assist the schools run their daily activities without hitches since students had stopped paying school fees as a result of the free education policy.
“But I have to commend President Muhammad Buhari for providing counterpart funding under Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).
“I want to assure you that, since we came to office in 2015, we have never failed to provide our counterpart funding for the development of education in Kano State.
“I am happy to inform you that we are so upto date, because even as of 2021, we have already paid part of it.” Ganduje said.
Earlier in his remarks, the state’s Commissioner of education, Me Sanusi Kiru said that during the event, 2,662 female secondary School teachers have successfully completed their crash NCE programme to upgrade their knowledge and qualifications.
According to him, the female students were presented their certificates, adding that each of them have benefited from the female teachers’ scholarship of N50 thousand annually during their study.
“In addition to the payment of hundreds million naira registration and certification fees. I am quite elated to inform you that with this initiative, Kano State has no single unqualified teacher in its payroll.
“We are also gagging off the distribution of mobile tablets to 44 Local Government Educational officers to simplify data generation, analysis and management with modern technology.
“Before we leave this place, we are going to flag off the distribution of 543,360.000 English, mathematics and basic text books to 840 schools, 60 to each of the 14 zones.
“And also the distribution of 10,000 copies of Teen Trust weekly papers to all secondary Schools across the state.” He explained.
According to him, the state government has among other success recorded, achieved the establishment of 300 capacity Computer Base Test (CBT) centre at Murtala Muhammad Library.
He explained that the state government has already secured the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) accreditation for the CBT examination, therefore ready for this year’s examination.
