Francis Sardauna in Katsina
The Katsina State Commissioner for Education, Badamasi Lawal Charanchi, yesterday disclosed that the enrolment of primary school pupils has risen from 900,000 to 2.2 million in the state due to the state government’s effort to revamp the education sector.
The commissioner, who disclosed this while addressing some journalists in his office, explained that out of the 2.2 million pupils enrolled in primary schools across the state, 1.2 million are girls.
He said: “When we came on board in 2015, there were only 900,000 primary school pupils, but today we have 2.2 million children coming to school-about one million boys and 1.2 million girls.
“Is this not a good development? And yet we are being accused of having a large portion of out-of-school children in the North. Yes, they are, but see what we have achieved. This is not unconnected to the effort of the state Governor, Aminu Bello Masari’s administration.”
He added that the government had expended N15 billion on construction of seven new schools and renovation of 57 others across the 34 local government areas of the state in order to revitalise the education sector.
The commissioner reiterated that N6 billion has been spent by the government to pay for West African Examination Council (WAEC), National Examination Council (NECO) and other examination fees for indigenous students in the state.
“Numbers of primary school teachers has also increased from 19,000 to 27,000. We also have 5,000 secondary school teachers. This is aside from the adequate teaching and learning materials being provided for schools by the state government,” he stated.
