In June, Governor Abba Yusuf of Kano State took decisive action when he declared a state of emergency on education in Kano to address the sector’s challenges. As part of this initiative, 5,000 new teachers were employed to revitalise the education system. The governor said the initiative aimed to provide the required manpower for public schools in the state to provide quality education.
Beyond recruiting new teachers, the state has also initiated continuous professional development programmes for existing teachers.
According to the governor, the era of pupils receiving lectures under harsh conditions was over, and he pledged to ensure a total rehabilitation and provision of furniture for public schools in the state.
Indeed, education is one of the sectors Governor Yusuf has dedicated resources to its revitalisation, with his administration focused on rehabilitating dilapidated school infrastructure and paying commendable attention to improving the quality of education received by students in one of Nigeria’s biggest states.
If anyone was in doubt as to the Kano State governor’s commitment to fixing education, it didn’t take long for Governor Yusuf to clear that hesitation when he paid an unscheduled inspection visit to Government Girls Secondary School Albasu, where he declared that his administration had restated his commitment to fully implement the components of the declaration of a state of emergency on education and one of the measures is the reopening of 15 girls’ secondary schools removed by the past administration in the state.
In addition to reopening the girls’ secondary schools, the government launched awareness campaign to encourage parents to send their daughters to school and the provision of scholarships specifically for female students.
The government is not only focusing on the rehabilitation of schools and providing a conducive environment for learning, it is also improving access to educational facilities. For example, it has almost completed the 5-kilometre road leading to a girls’ secondary school in Albasu.
The Governor also instructed the Ministry of Education to, as a matter of urgency, post English Language, Mathematics and Natural Sciences teachers to the school for enhancement.
“Kano Government will not relent in building, as well as in the rehabilitation of more classrooms, furniture, teaching aides, including all that it takes to create a conducive atmosphere for teaching and learning in schools across the state” Yusuf emphasised.
“I have also inspected Albasu five-kilometre road project. I’m delighted with the level of the work done. I’m therefore calling on the contractor to speed up the process of completing the remaining work in no distant time,” the governor said.
Governor Yusuf’s passion for educational development is understandable. Kano State, despite being one of Nigeria’s most populous states, has a low literacy rate of 38.06 per cent, according to a report.
The state also faces significant educational challenges, with a high dropout and out-of-school rate.
To address the challenges hindering the advancement of education in the state, Governor Yusuf has not spared resources to revive and resuscitate educational institutions and facilities.
He explained that the state, under his administration, would not relent in building and rehabilitation of classrooms, provision of furniture, teaching aides and all that it takes to create a conducive atmosphere for teaching and learning.
To further emphasise that his administration is not paying lip service to its commitment to education, Kano State allocated ₦95bn to the education sector in the 2024 budget. That is one of the largest allocations to education in recent years.
Governor Yusuf also launched initiatives to incorporate digital learning and ICT in schools. Kano State has also introduced special education programmes targeting children with disabilities and has encouraged community involvement in education through the establishment of School-Based Management Committees (SBMCs). This is in addition to the establishment of new schools, particularly in underserved rural areas.
Also high on the priority list of Governor Yusuf’s administration is the expansion of technical and vocational education to provide students with practical skills that are in demand in the job market. To support students from low-income families, the Kano State government has rolled out scholarship programmes and has also expanded the state’s school feeding programme.
To ensure that it adequately tracks progress, the Kano State government also introduced a monitoring and evaluation framework to measure the effect of these educational initiatives. Many believe it is a first in subnational governance since 1999.
These interventions in the education sector have not gone unnoticed, especially by stakeholders in the northern region. For instance, a coalition of youth groups under the auspices of North East Youth Progressive Union and Coalition for Democratic Rights Group in Northern Nigeria, while decrying the deteriorating state of education in the northeast, called on governors of the region to emulate Governor Yusuf, who they said had changed the state of education in the state within a few months.
The chairman of the group, Dr. Kabir Hassan Sambo, urged governors in the northeast to rise to the challenge of salvaging the education sector. “We are therefore calling on governors from the North East and by extension the entire northern governors to emulate the good work of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano state in the education and capacity building programmes.”
For an administration inaugurated just over a year ago, the statement above is a validation of where it stands on education.
Kayode Isaac, a journalist and researcher wrote in from Abuja
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