Katsina State Governor, Dikko Umar Radda, has disclosed that the state government has invested a total of N120 billion in education since 2022, with the construction of over 150 new schools to cater to the growing population and improve education quality.
In an exclusive interview on AriseTV, Governor Radda emphasized that education has been given top priority in the state’s development agenda.
Radda also shed light on the state’s financial commitment to enhancing education, stating that the N120 billion investment will go towards various sectors within the education system, such as teacher training, infrastructure development, and improving the welfare of educators.
“Last year alone, if you have seen the press briefing that we have given last week by my deputy governor, Katsina State has invested in the year 2022, since when we started to the end of the year 2024, we invested about 120 billion Naira in education in terms of training the teachers, improving on the infrastructure, building new schools, building more classrooms, enhancing the capacity, and also improving the welfare of the teachers,” he said.
He also noted that in the state’s 2024 and 2025 budget, education has the highest budgetary allocation and they have made it a priority.
Expansion of Schools and Recruitment
As part of the state’s efforts to improve access to education, Radda highlighted that over 7,000 new teachers have been recruited, and the state is constructing more schools to address the imbalance between primary and secondary education.
“We are creating more schools. We have recruited over 7,000 new teachers in the state at once. And then, as I speak to you today, we have built more than 150 new junior and secondary schools because those ones, were paid for by the primary schools because we realized that the number of secondary schools is not adequate for the number of people that are graduating from the primary school to the secondary school level,” the Governor explained.
According to Radda, of the 150 schools built, 75 have been completed, while 75 are still under construction.
“75 of those schools were completed. 75 schools were ongoing, as I speak to you today,” he said.
Radda emphasized the importance of adequately trained teachers for the development of the education sector.
“Because you cannot develop education when you don’t have adequate people that can be able to teach those students in the school,” he said.
Out-of-school children
Reports indicate that Rahama Mohammed Farah, the Chief of UNICEF’s Kano Field Office, revealed that 536,112 children in the state are not receiving formal education.
Farah also highlighted that even for children who do attend school, learning outcomes remain significantly low, raising further concerns about the state of education in the region.
Radda while acknowledging the issue of out of school children in the UNICEF’s report, expressed concerns about the accuracy of the figures.
“I agree with you there are out-of-school children and there are a number of out-of-school children in the state.
“I’m not denying that fact, but what I’m saying, I’m denying the figures they roll out because what I’m saying is the figures must have changed by now because we have invested and we are talking about a figure that was given last year and I believe with what we have done in education, that figure must have reduced,” he said
“So what we are doing as a government now is improving on the number of classes, improving on the number of teachers, improving on the number of infrastructure and then the furniture in the house, in the schools so that we can reduce the number.”
The governor pointed out that significant efforts are being made to reduce the number of out-of-school children, including creating community-level committees and encouraging parents to enrol their children in schools.
