Stakeholders Brainstorm To Save Education In Kano

Parents, caregivers and pupils have presented myriads of problems affecting effective education delivery in their communities to the Kano State government at a town hall meeting organised by Save The Children, with State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) in attendance.

The event which took place at Ajingi local government area in Kano State yesterday also saw in attendance, politicians, traditional and religious leaders.

Addressing newsmen at the close of the event, the social behaviour change manager of Save The Children, Ibrahim Haruna, said they are providing an opportunity for the communities to interface with the authorities and policy makers and to address issues of sociocultural norms affecting education delivery.

Ajingi, Makoda and Minjibir are the selected local government areas from Kano that top the list of communities with out of school children where the PLANE project of Save The Children is taking place.

Some of the identified problems include lack of school teachers, inadequate learning facilities like infrastructure and teaching and learning materials as well as behavioural patterns that affect the education delivery in the communities.

“We are here today to conduct a town hall meeting. This is a community led advocacy where community members interface directly with the government and policy makers.

“As you can see, we have senior officials from the state ministry of education, the State Universal Basic Education SUBEB, and all other agencies like the local government chairman and the district head, tradition and religious leaders.

“This is an opportunity for communities to come and showcase what they are doing and how the work of saving the children under the Plane project has been able to straighten the capacities of the communities to organize themselves for collective actions.

“This is aimed at ensuring that we address the issue of sociocultural norms and other issues of accessibility which deny children access to education.

“So, the entire goal of what we want to do is that communities are able to be heard. First of all they present the key successes and achievements of the work they are doing under what we call the community access circle which the communities are working to exploit, develop and implement actions, they are here today to present the achievement of those actions to the government.

“As you can see, they have achieved a lot in terms of how they have mobilized resources and addressed some of the challenges. They have also presented to the government the support they need that include the issue of inadequate teachers, inadequate schools and learning materials,” he stated.

On her part, Kano SUBEB acting board secretary, Amina Umar, said the delegation from SUBEB were at the town hall meeting to witness the activities of the Save The Children who are working in Kano State.