By Abdallah el-Kurebe
Kano state government will soon establish an Education Trust Fund, to help in attaining the objective of providing sound education to the children of citizens, the state governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has announced.
This is contained in a statement by the Director General, Media and Public Relations, Ameen Yassar and forwarded to Newsdiaryonline.
The development is coming shortly after the state government unveiled its free and compulsory basic – senior secondary education policy, which also prioritizes inclusive and Almajiri education.
Speaking during an extra ordinary Executive Council meeting to deliberate on the draft Kano Education Trust Fund bill, at the Government House, Monday night, Ganduje stated that his administration aimed to generate funds to build a solid foundation for a more literate and competitive society.
“You could recall that we recently launched free and compulsory education in Kano. Under this policy, several plans would be implemented including provision of infrastructure, integrating Islamic and Qur’anic education, girl – child education, teacher training, community participation etc. All these require funds so we have to ensure ways of making the policy sustainable,” Ganduje said.
In this regard, the Kano state government also earmarked N49. 9 billion, representing 25.23 percent of its 2020 Appropriation bill for Education, to allow for critical projects such as the free and compulsory education policy.
Dr. Ganduje added that a bill for the establishment and management of the State Modern Skills Acquisition Center has been forwarded to the state House of Assembly for pasaage.
This, he maintained, was to ensure efficient management of the center, adding that “my recent visit to London was to discuss with the manufactures of the equipment we installed, on how to run the place.
“We have agreed to engage an expert from their side to administer it for some time, to set its management tone, so that don’t end up rubbishing the investment.
“They are going to train 35 of our carefully selected tutors from Kano in addition to about six more that will be selected soon. They will be trained for about six weeks on handling the equipment we installed so that when they resume work, things will go on smoothly”, he added.
Ganduje was also in Paris, France last week to discuss with French government officials on the joint scholarship scheme for lecturers of tertiary institutions from Kano.
The governor announced that the French authorities agreed to extend the scholarship programme for another five years to enable more lecturers from Kano to pursue postgraduate and doctoral courses in French universities.
Meanwhile, Gov. Ganduje briefed the state Executive Council on his visit to the Seattle, USA, under the aegis of the Progressive Governors Forum, were issues bordering on primary health care and routine immunization were discussed, with the Co Chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Mr. Bill Gates and Alh. Aliko Dangote.
