Partnership for Learning for All in Nigeria (PLANE), an education programme funded by the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), has revealed that about 25% of primary schools in Kano State have only one teacher to teach all six primary grades.
The NGO made the revelation on Thursday while presenting findings of Learning Outcomes Assessment on the PLANE-supported LGAs after two years of intervention in target LGAs in Kano State.
According to the data collated through PLANE’s assessment received from School Support Officers, the LGAs have an average of 131 children per teacher, which is close to four times UNESCO’s recommended Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR) of 35:1.
“Both teachers and learners demonstrated high levels of absenteeism, and in about 79% of Kano classrooms, most children do not have pencils or exercise books,” the data revealed.
The findings, however, revealed that there have been notable improvements in literacy and mathematics in supported schools across the LGAs.
Speaking during the event, Joseph Wales, the FCDO Education Adviser, said: “PLANE and the British Council have demonstrated the potential of these approaches to improve learning outcomes despite significant challenges.
“Now we must use these as a catalyst for working in partnership at all levels in Kano – community, LGA and state – in order to improve education for all.”
On his part, the Deputy National Team Lead of PLANE, Sam Achimugu, said Kano State has been very committed and PLANE has been engaging closely to ensure that the progress made so far was sustained and scaled up.
“We are working with the government to ensure learners in the state perform better in foundational literacy and numeracy skills, beyond the LGAs where we currently work.
“However, there are some systemic challenges that stakeholders need to collaboratively address,” Achimugu added.
Reacting to the findings, stakeholders commended the efforts of PLANE for the results achieved in improving learning outcomes, while also highlighting that some schools are overstaffed in the metropolitan areas and teachers need to be redeployed to cater to shortages in the rural areas.
In his remarks, Board Secretary, Kano State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Amina Umar, representing the SUBEB Chairman, said: “Most of the issues raised here, from the side of SUBEB, we have started taking actions and the state government is very committed as demonstrated through the declaration of a state of emergency in education in the state.”
She commended the newly elected LGA Chairmen for honouring the dissemination event as it showed their commitment to work together.
“The LGA Chairmen of the intervening local governments are here, and they have a key role to play because it is within their mandate to appoint competent Education Secretaries so that part of these problems can be solved.
“At the school level, there are also issues with leadership. A competent Education Secretary will be able to shun interference and appoint competent head-teachers to manage the schools and that will address the issue of absenteeism and time lost by students not being in school at the right time,” Mrs Umar added.
The dissemination event brought together stakeholders from the State Ministry of Education, SUBEB, LGAs, CSOs and development partners FCDO and the British Council.
In response to the findings, participants all agreed on the need to address the systemic issues and participated in the development of a follow-up strategy towards addressing the same.
PLANE, since its inception, has reached over one million learners across Kano, Kaduna and Jigawa States with interventions aimed at strengthening foundational literacy and numeracy skills and improving education delivery in general.
PLANE is a seven-year programme working with the federal and target state governments to improve learning outcomes.
In Kano State, the programme’s foundational and accelerated learning initiative has reached a total of 265,011 children across 11 LGAs and 1,112 schools.
