By Usman Usman Garba
Kano State 2024 School Enrollment Drive Campaign Committee has met with His Royal Highness, the Emir of Kano Muhammadu Sanusi II over the forthcoming launching of enrollment drive in Kano.
Briefing the Emir at his palace on the program today Wednesday, State Commissioner of Education Alhaji Umar Haruna Doguwa disclosed that arrangements had been completed to launch the enrollment drive campaign across the state.
Umar Doguwa maintained that the committee was at the Emir’s palace to seek his support towards sensitizing the public on the importance of sending their children to schools.
“Your Highness, we are all aware of the positive role you are playing, especially in creating public awareness on matters of education development; that is why, as a committee, we have come to seek your support towards sensitizing the public on school enrollment drive campaign to commence soon,” said the Commissioner.
Doguwa noted that statistics indicated that Kano had recently time recorded 900,000 out-of-school children, adding that the number has now reduced drastically due to the present administration’s commitment to overhauling the education sector.
He announced that apart from the distribution of school furniture and teaching materials to primary and post-primary schools, the administration has completed arrangements to distribute school uniforms and other teaching materials expected to be held today.
Umar further called on parents and other stakeholders to rally around this effort and make sure that children in the state are sent to schools.
In his speech, the Chief UNICEF field office in Kano, Mr Raha Rihood Mohammed Farah, explained that the launching of the enrollment drive campaign in Kano was aimed at increasing the enrollment of children in schools across the state.
“This year’s campaign is dedicated to accelerating actions to reduce the number of out-of-school children through sustainable community engagement and locally led solutions.
“In Nigeria, a staggering 10.5 million children are out of school and about 10%of these children are in Kano State, the highest rate in the world,”, he said.
Mr Raha appealed to parents, local community leaders, and community organizations to get engaged in this year’s enrollment drive to ensure massive enrollment of out-of-school children in Kano State.
His Royal Highness, the Emir of Kano Muhammadu Sanusi II, assured of the traditional leaders’ support towards achieving the set objectives.
The Emir, who appreciated the government’s effort in declaring a state of emergency on education, which, according to him, started yielding positive impacts, called on the government to redouble this effort by ensuring adequate provision of school furniture, renovation of schools and teacher recruitment.
He advocated the use of the mother language in teaching students some subjects that need better explanation and understanding as obtained in other developed countries like China and Saudi Arabia.
“In this era of technology transformation, it is time to start applying new modern ways of teaching to meet the demand of the changes brought about by technology globally, ” he said.
