Ganduje begins disbursement of N148m grants to Schools

Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State has began the disbursement of N148 million grants to 1,400 public secondary schools across the state.

Ganduje made this known while inaugurating the disbursement at the Coronation Hall, Government house, Kano as part of activities making the state’s Education day.

He said that the grants will enhance the free education and Almajiri integration policy of the state.

Ganduje said the free and compulsory education policy introduced by the state can only be sustained through consistent funding.

“We are providing cheques to schools for daily maintenance… We are providing Tablet computers to Education Officers across the 44 LGAs for data generation, analysis management and transferred of data such as enrollment, discipline among others to the headquarters without physical appearance.

“Outside Koranic recitation and Western education, the Almajiri are being thought various Skills so that they can also fend for themselves after graduation,” Ganduje said.

He said to sustain funding of the policy and other education programmes, the state has not defaulted in the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) counterpart funding under the Nigerian government.

He commended President Muhammadu Buhari for ensuring consistent and prompt payments to the state.

“Kano State is up to date down to 2021 in the payment for counterpart funding.

“The excess we paid in 2020 is even being rolled over to 2021 and we thank President Buhari for always ensuring that funds are released to us in time,” Governor Ganduje said.

According to him, other sources of funding of the policy are; resources from the Educational Trust Fund, five per cent of the state’s Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, one per cent of LGA funds and Community participation were individuals are voluntarily donating to the basket of the policy.

He said the all teachers in the state have been upgraded to NCE through various trainings.

“We are happy to have entered into partnership with Media Trust, the publishers of Daily Trust Newspapers for the publication of TEEN TRUST, a publication for the Children.

“It is an innovation to educate our children especially in the northern part.

“I want to assure you that, since we came to office in 2015, we have never failed to provide our counterpart funding for the development of education in Kano state.

“I am happy to inform you that we are up to date, because even as of 2021, we have already paid part of it,” Ganduje said.

Earlier in his remarks, the state Commissioner for Education, Mr Sanusi Kiru said 2,662 female secondary school teachers had successfully completed their crash NCE programme to upgrade their knowledge and qualifications.

Kiru said that the female students were presented their certificates, adding that each of them have benefited from the female teachers’ scholarship of N50, 000 annually during their study.

“In addition to the payment of hundreds of million naira registration and certification fees. I am quite elated to inform you that with this initiative, Kano state has no single unqualified teacher in its payroll.

“We are also inaugurating the distribution of mobile tablets to 44 Local Government Educational Officers to simplify data generation, analysis and management with modern technology.

“Before we leave this place, we are going to inaugurate the distribution of 543,360.000 English, Mathematics and Basic Text Books to 840 schools, 60 to each of the 14 zones.

“And also the distribution of 10,000 copies of Teen Trust Weekly Papers to all secondary schools across the state,” he explained.

According to him, the state government has among other successes recorded, achieved the establishment of 300 capacity Computer Base Test (CBT) centre at Murtala Muhammad Library.

He also said that the state government had already secured the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) accreditation for the CBT examination, therefore ready for the 2021 examination.

Our correspondent reports that Kano State has since 2019 introduced Free and compulsory education from primary to senior secondary school levels as well as integration of the Almajiri system into modern educational system.