Revealed: Education in disarray in Katsina, Buhari’s home state

Ï Pupils take lessons on bare floors
Ï 75,670 science students lack access to teaching, laboratory equipment
Ï Gov Masari laments, says state needs about 13,000 teachers

In what can be described as incredible, education in President Muhammadu Buhari’ home state, Katsina, has taken the back seat as an investigation by The Daily Times has particularly shown that the teaching of Science is in total disarray, despite the claim by the state government that it dedicates 20 percent of the state’s annual budget to education each year.

Governor Aminu Bello Masari also painted a gloomy picture of the level of development of Education in the state when he told visiting regional leaders of a Non-governmental Organisation, Voluntary Service Organisation, VSO, who were in the state to promote their pet programme, “Science on Wheel”, that it will take the state 20 years to revamp the education sector.

According to the Governor, the state currently has a teaching staff deficit of 13,000 and can only recruit 1,970 teachers per year, due to paucity of funds.

He also disclosed that to avert the crisis created by the shortage of teaching staff, retired teachers and directors in the Ministry of Education have been drafted to teach in schools.

When The Daily Times visited Government Senior Secondary School, Muduru, a 14 kilometer drive from Katsina city center, along the road to Daura, students including the science class in SS1-3, were seen receiving lectures on the bare floor.

The students confirmed that it has been their experience in the past four years. A visit to about 15 schools revealed a general trend of deprivation in the provision of infrastructure, laboratory, lack of science teachers, and poor communication skills amongst students. Some students interrogated by our correspondent could only speak Hausa as they were only taught with that language since and could neither speak nor understand English.

Further investigation by our correspondent showed that with an average science class population of 62 students and since the state has over 432 schools, an estimated number of about 75,670 science students are in danger of being denied access to the teaching and exposure to practical science exercises due to lack of teachers and the needed laboratory equipment.

When confronted with some of these findings, the Public Relations Officer in Katsina State Ministry of Education, Malam Salisu Lawal, said Government is working hard to address the challenges.

But Governor Masari said: “For us to compete within the country and globally, education is key, particularly Science, English and Mathematics. Statistics of performance of students in the critical areas like science subjects, English and Mathematics is very discouraging.

‘’We appreciate VSO and the contributions it has made in the development of science education. It is a very good innovation and we shall support you through the Ministry of Education, to make it sustainable.’’

The Daily Times recalls that Kastina State had played leading historical role in the development of education in Nigeria as some of the nation’s leading lights and former leaders were all indigenes of the state.

Augustine Okezie Abuja