Stakeholders Urge Kano Govt To Address Challenges in Education Sector

By Abdullahi Yusuf

Stakeholders in Kano on Tuesday appealed to the State Government to address the challenges bedeviling education to ensure the success of the State of Emergency it declared in the sector.

The State Government had declared a State of Emergency on education in order to address the decay in the sector and restore it to the path of development.

The challenges, according to the stakeholders, include inadequate furniture, teaching and learning materials, toilet facilities as well as dearth of classrooms and teaching staff in primary and secondary schools across the state.

The concerned citizens whom include parents teachers and students, made the call while interacting with newsmen who were on an assessment tour of projects executed by the state Ministry of Education under the State of Emergency declared in the state’s education sector.

One of them is the Headmaster of Hotoro South Special Primary School in Nasarawa Local Government Area, Habibu Ahmed Sani, who asked for the general renovation of the school in order to give it a facelift and make it more conducive for teaching and learning.

Sani also urged the State Government to provide furniture for the 1,432 pupils of the school most of whom, he said, are receiving lessons on bare floor.

“As you can see, most of the classrooms of this school don’t have desks and chairs which compels the pupils to receive their lessons on bare floor.

“So, I am appealing to the government to, under the ongoing State of Emergency it declared in the education sector, provide furniture for the pupils, to enable them to receive their lessons comfortably,” he said.

Similarly, the Headmaster called on the government to post more teachers to the school so as to enhance its present ratio of two classrooms to one teacher.

His counterpart, the Headmaster of Sabon Layi  Primary School, Bichi in Bichi Local Government Area, Malam Auwal Abubakar Baduku, also lamented the absence of some facilities necessary for conducive teaching and learning in the school.

According to Baduku, the school virtually lacks furniture as most of the 1,764 pupils receive lessons and with only four toilets shared between the teachers and the pupils.

He also disclosed that the school is facing acute shortage of teachers as the only 39 teaching staff(both permanent, temporary and casual) handle 18 classrooms on the basis of one teacher per three classroom.

He appealed to the State Government to address these challenges for the successful implementation of the State of Emergency in the education sector.

Another Headmaster, Sabi’u Sunusi Idris of Dawakin Tofa Modern Primary School in Dawakin Tofa Local Government Area, however, commended the State Government for providing furniture, teaching materials water and toilet facilities in the school.

But Idris bemoaned the absence of security in the school, saying that with its 1,212 students and 32 teachers the school has no perimeter fence and no security guards.

These, he said, exposed the schools to thieves whom have been stealing its valuables.

On their part, Latifatu Jibrin Bichi and Abdulrahaman Idris, both parents of some pupils in the Sabon Layi Primary School, Bichi, commended the government for intervening in the education sector but called for provision of uniforms, furniture, instructional materials, more teachers and toilet facilities to the school.

Due to lack of furniture in the school, they said, their children sit on mats and and other materials to receive lessons, making the situation unconducive for learning.

And Usman Haladu, a student of Government Junior Secondary School, Dawakin Tofa, asked the State Government to construct more toilet facilities and post more teachers to his school.

Haladu said although the school has furniture and instructional materials,it has only one toilet facility which is used by the female students of the school.