By Francis Sardauna
Governor Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina State has said his administration has increased the enrolment of primary school pupils from 700,000 to 1.8 million across the 34 local government areas of the state to tackle the spate of out-of-school children bedevilling the state.
He explained that his administration is working tirelessly to revamp what he termed the decayed infrastructure that he met in 2015 in both primary and secondary schools in order to restore the lost glory of the education sector in the state.
Masari, in a media chat in Katsina, added that the previous administration claimed it had enrolled 1.2 million children in primary schools but after a thorough investigation and physical counting of pupils, he disclosed that only 700,000 pupils were attending schools in 2015.
He said: “When we came in in 2015, even in the register what we saw was 1.2 million but when we counted physically, what we were able to get was 700,000 and something. Today, if you check our register, those who are going to school, we have over 1.8 million from primary one to six in Katsina State.
“And these are those that are in class, I don’t believe that we should use book register. I work on physical records of pupils attending primary schools. The substantial number of out-of-school children in the north are from Katsina.
“It means we have to double what we have today before we can accommodate all children of Katsina State into primary education which we must do because part of the insecurity we are talking about is lack of education.”
Governor Masari reiterated that his administration would continue to prioritise education in order to meet the desired result and reduce the prevailing number of school children roaming the streets in the state.
