Enrolment of school children rises by 89.7% in Buhari's state - Official

The National Association of Education Secretaries of Nigeria (NAESN) in Katina state says the enrollment of children into basic education in the state has risen from 51 to 89.7 per cent in 2018.

The state Chairman of the Association, Alhaji Usman Maiadua, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Maiadua on Friday.

He attributed the improvement in the children’s enrollment into primary and junior secondary schools to the transformation agenda of the present administration in the state.

Maiadua, who is also the Education Secretary of Maiadua Local Education Authority (LEA), said the present administration promoted 15,000 teachers who were denied promotion between 2013 and 2015.

He said the promotions have since been implemented to the letter.

He also attributed the success recorded in the basic education sector to the due implementation of annual increment and regular payment of salaries of teachers.

“Before now `we spent five consecutive years without annual increment in our salaries”. Maiadua said.

The chairman also said 3,000 teachers had been sent for further training out of which 2,500 were undergoing Bachelor of Education degree while the remaining 500 were pursuing Nigerian Certification in Education (NCE) programmes.

According to him, regular training and retraining of teachers and the management staff of the LEAs has also contributed immensely towards making the state’s basic education sector one of the best in the country.

“Majority of those on inservice training have graduated successfully and returned to their various schools,” he said.

He further said thousands of teachers had attended different workshops, seminars and other short courses on methodology of teaching English, Mathematics and Basic science as core subjects.

He pointed out that in last three years 1,250 primary and JSS schools were renovated and provided with relevant teaching and learning materials including text books, furniture and other complementary instructional materials.

He added that 251 additional primary and JSS schools were constructed across the 34 local government areas of the state and equipped with teachers.

Maiadua said 5,000 unemployed youth were recently engaged as teacher and deployed them to schools under the newly introduced S-power programme, adding that each would receive monthly stipend of N20,000 for two years.

The chairman urged the teachers in the state to reciprocate government’s commitment to their welfare and provision of conducive teaching and learning environment in schools by redoubling their efforts.

He noted that the establishment of the early child care development centres (ECCDCs) have also contributed to raising the standard of education in the state.

“This is beside the Social Intervention Programme (SIP), provision of school furniture, construction of new schools and renovation of the existing ones".

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Maiadua LEA has recorded 60 per cent increase of children enrollment at ECCDCs in 78 existing primary schools.