From Maduabuchi Nmeribeh, Kano
Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje’s launching of free, compulsory basic and secondary education policy has made serious impact with the reduction of the data of out-of-school children in Kano from 1,306,106 to 410,873, from 2015 to 2019, according to his Chief Press Secretary, Malam Abba Anwar.
A statement signed by Malam Anwar and made available to journalists on Friday indicated that, “Ganduje’s government policies and behaviour towards improving quality education with a critical concern to global best practices, in Kano state, coupled with the recently most popular education policy in the state, free and compulsory basic and secondary education, the out-of-school children menace faces serious drop from 1,306,106 to 410,873, from 2015 to 2019.
“It was the National Education Data Survey (NEDS) Report of 2015 which showed that, Kano had (then) the highest number of Out-Of-School children with 1,306,106. The terrifying report then prompted governor Ganduje to took the issue with all seriousness, with measures aimed at addressing the situation squarely.
“Then with the coming into being, of free and compulsory basic and secondary schools education policy, as contained in the report submitted to the governor by the sub-committee on Out-Of-School children survey 2019, it was noted that as a result of various intervention programmes the serious drop becomes inevitable.
“The survey by the sub-committee was conducted across all the 44 local governments in the state, in the 3 Senatorial Districts. It was conducted on house to house basis, using Village/Ward Heads under the District Heads of each local government area.
“The committee was mandated to liaise with relevant stakeholders and officials to undertake survey on Out-Of-School children in the state, with a view to generating a comprehensive and reliable data that will enable government to effectively implement the laudable policy of Free and Compulsory Basic and Secondary Schools Education in the state,” says the report.
“According to the report, from the total number of 410,873 out-of-school children in the state, 275,917 are boys, that represents 67% and 134,956 are girls, representing 33%. The report indicates further that, Tofa local government has the lowest number of 2,184 out-of-school children and Rogo has the highest number of 15,899 out-of-school children.
“Parts of the interventions that resulted in the drastic drop of out-of-school children from 2015 to 2019, according to the submitted report are, re-introduction of state school feeding of primary 1 to 3 by Community Promotion Council (CPC), creation of new Emirates, National Home Grown Feeding programme of primary 1 to 3, Global Partnership for Education/Nigeria Partnership for Education Project (GPE/NIPEP), provision of free school uniform by government and other philanthropists and advocacy and sensitisation by government.”
