By Aminu Garko
Governor Abba Yusuf of Kano State on Wednesday said his administration has the political will to revive and recover the lost glory in the education sector of the state.
Yusuf stated this while declaring open the two-day Education Recovery Conference held at Dangote Business School, Bayero University, Kano, with the theme: ‘Repositioning Education in Kano State: Navigating the Path to Excellence.
“We were prepared before declaring state of emergency on education,” he told the minister of Education who was represented by Dr. Folake Olatunji.
The governor said no amount of investment in a child is as profitable as education, calling on participants to actively participate in the deliberation freely
“for us to benefit from the wisdom and determination to chart a new course that no child in this state is left behind.”
Enumerating his achievements in the education sector, he said: “We have the political will, but parents, teachers, government and everyone, including the private sector, should roll up their sleeves. On our part, we believe it is achievable,” Yusuf said.
Ms. Cynthia Rowe -the Development Director, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, British High Commission, Abuja said the UK has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the Kano State Government in addressing significant challenges in the state.
“The UK’s overriding education objective in Nigeria is to ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality education.
“Education is fundamental to lasting
poverty reduction, building prosperous, resilient economies and peaceful, stable societies,” she said.
Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Dr. Abdullahi Baffa, said “there is need to harmonise the learning and teaching that transpire in our tertiary institutions as well as re-define our goals periodically.
“Since the creation of Kano State in the late-60s, and up to mid-80s, our state had Periodic Development Plan and we must return to development planning if our state is to develop; or else, it will remain one vast landscape of unconnected contracts, and disconnected researchers unable to connect their work with the state development policies and vision.
“Our education should drive our state development objectives and we
need to carry the universities and other tertiary educational institutions
along. We have to revive our vocational training centres and give our
technical schools adequate and requisite attention.”
Baffa added that education is the springboard for every kind of development.
He said: “If education is weak or dysfunctional, society and its development will also be weak and dysfunctional. And all change begins with education; because it is education that shapes, corrects and restores society.”
Minister for Education, represented by Dr. Folake Olatunji, commended the Kano state government for the conference and for striving to salvage the education sector from total collapse.
She called for use of data in the planning and implementation, disclosing that discussions were ongoing on the out of school children by the Tinubu administration, to reduce it by 70 percent in three years and totally eradicate the menace in four years.
She called for enhancement of quality teachers to reduce the learning poverty and added that children should be taught in technical and vocational skills to fit in the modern age.
Former minister for education, Professor Ruqayyatu Rufa’i, who was the Keynote Speaker at the conference tasked the governor to put in place a team to carry out an action plan for the implementation of the strategic plan, to ensure that from August to October, comprehensive reforms in the education sector are fully on ground.
