• As state of emergency receives kudos
From Desmond Mgboh, Kano
Stakeholders in the educational sector of Kano State have appealed to Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf to redouble his drive to salvage the sector, insisting that despite the much that had been done, there was still more to do.
These were the views of respondents during assessment tour of construction of primary school classrooms by the members of the Correspondent Chapel, Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ).
Statistics from the Ministry of Education showed decay in the sector prior to the emergency declaration by the administration.
The numbers showed that out of the 42, 516 classrooms of primary schools, only 22 per cent were habitable as nearly four of every five of them were marked by dilapidation and disrepair. At the secondary school level, the bad news continued unchecked as less than 30 per cent of the classrooms were habitable.
It was against this background the governor declared state of emergency on education in June.
The emergency set out to repair, rebuild and revamp education. The tone was set for the construction of 4000 primary and post primary schools, including government’s supply of furniture, text and exercise books, chalks, school registers and other enabling teaching and learning facilities.
Assistant Headmaster, Garindour Primary School, Warara Local Government, Murtala Aliyu, lauded the governor for the bold steps taken to salvage education, but noted that there were still much to be done to get close to the solution of the alarming devastation.
He lamented that in his school, they are grossly understaffed innaddition to lacking so many supportive items to do their work adding that they have just 18 teaching staffers assigned with the responsibility to teach 2071 pupils.
He further disclosed that they needed more furniture even though he acknowledged the school had taken receipt of about 83 reading tables and chairs from the Ministry of Education.
Daily Sun during the visit observed that more than a thousand pupils in the school sat on bare floors during classes. They were also without notable texts or exercise books as the classes progressed. But the headmaster is not undermined as he remained confident that with the commitment already demonstrated by the state governor, the journey to find a lasting solution has just begun, saying a lot of things have changed under the new charge and based on the present emergency declaration.
A similar hallowing but now promising experience occurred at Junior Secondary School, Chula in Agingi LG, located North of the state. The junior secondary school combines the six year primary school programme and the three year junior secondary education, graduating their students after nine years of study.
Its headmaster, Haruna Abba, said there was an urgent need to do more even as he appreciated the state governor for the construction of a block of four classroom that is on – going in the school at the moment .
In his words, “Things were not so good before now. It was made worse after the government decided to combine the program for both primary and junior secondary schools in the state. That means that primary schools from all our neigbouring communities, who have no classrooms for the new programme, graduated their students through our school”
He said that they lacked furniture to sit their pupils and had not received any furniture, like some schools, from the Ministry of Education adding that his school had no fence and were often faced with trespassers who drive pass their premises while the classes were ongoing.
At Hotoro South Special Primary School, children were also seen taking lessons on bare floors with their teachers struggling to control their noise and crowds.
The headmaster of the school, Habibu Ahmad Sani, said they were faced with the problem of insufficient teachers adding that they have 35 teachers with a population of 1,432 pupils, 80 percent of which sits on bare floor to take their lessons.
“We need urgent government intervention on teachers, teaching materials, desks and chairs with general renovations of our school to meet the standard educational institutions require”, he explained.
Bello Sani, who is an education stakeholder in Wudil LGA of the state argued that the problems would consistently reduce with time till the desired outcomes are achieved.
“It has to be gradual , it cannot be spontaneous. Let appreciate the Governor to get him to do more