Kano State Education My Opinion Amid of Deuces -By Abdullahi Garba Ramat

Engr. Abdullahi Garba Ramat

The sobriquet “Slave” can not and will never be detached from our names until we all believe and go by this common adage;
‘The greatest injustice is nothing but being silence in an unjust society’

Whenever a guide takes a wrong turn, the feedback would definitely be contrary to the aimed Gold! Menace in disguise is the most devastating evil and the only thing necessary for such evil to triumph in any society is for it to be neglected, unchecked or unattended. ( Engr Ramat)

This is the time, a time for introspection and then circumspection, to circumscribe Nigerian away from a bunch of Hawks and vampires masquerading as elders, elite and or statesmen. Our interest is at stakes, not any political or parochial interest, we are non partisan politicians as such we will not keep quiet while some prebendal and megalomaniac politicians hold us by jugular!

History has recorded while we were witnessing and seeing with our nicked eyes that between 2011 to 2015 inclusive, not only our state universities but also secondary and primary schools were in good shapes. Educational institutions competed at every level to be the best regionally, nationally, and internationally in terms of academic performance, extra-curricular activities, and infrastructural development. Efforts were made to upgrade, class rooms, theater and laboratory equipment, vice chancellors, registrars, deans, chairs, principals, headmasters, lecturers, instructors, teachers and educational administrators, both in the schools and in the educational bureaucracies in kano were highly motivated and committed to educating the youths. The quality of education was very high, thereby giving to Kano sate’s students all what was dim necessary to compete in a dynamically ever changing global environment. In fact, kano state education system had developmentally reached progressive apex in the state’s contemporary history.

We had hope, we had high expectations while being highly optimist that the foot print left by Kwankwaso in the sand of time would rightly be taken in the journey that would reflect nothing but progress, to some it would even be better.
Sadly the whole tune suddenly changed its frequency, it’s now in contrast to the aforementioned state, characterized by poor academic standards, unorganised extra-curricular activities and wretched infrastructure and facilities. In short, Some school compounds and campuses in kano state today are like facilities located in war zones. Some class are not but sorry slums. They are in a serious state of disrepair. Many primary and secondary schools are comparable to makeshift refugee camps in a war zone with broken windows, chairs, and desks. In some schools, the roofs are leaky and when it rains, classes are interrupted.

Most university campuses today are like archaeological artefacts due to lack of maintenance. It appears that many educational administrators today are not as motivated and committed as their counterparts during the previous administration. This means that our Educators really do not care about what happens to education in the state and even if they do, they did not and are not trying to avert the situation apart from maintaining their jobs and enhancing their financial wherewithal through embezzlement of allocated school funds, and other Levies.

Today, our schools are mere shadows of their past, in terms of academic standards. Quality has been sacrificed due to the insatiable desire by politicians, some educational bureaucrats, school administrators and lecturers to find the easiest means to accumulate wealth. Thus, academic performance is not taken seriously anymore, it is an open secret that students are occasionally compelled to pay for grades in many schools by some teachers. Students who have money do not have to even attend classes to get passing grades in SSCE. They pay according to the grades they want. On the other hand, students who cannot afford to pay are sometimes penalised for failing to pay.

It’s absolutely good to talk while we still can, better to alert while it’s still not too late and its the best act to dispassionately contribute while compassionately commenting as to influence decision of the concerned people and other interested parties, in this spectrum we can submit our efforts to skew the government statistically generated policy toward doing what is the most affluently needful for the masses,

To make the matter worst, the state Government has now deterred the golden free education in kano, the system which revived and enable many orphans to be within the four wall of class Room, now that students are to pay not only for their schools fees but also for WAEC and NECO registration fee and other unexplainable indirect fees imposed on students, many poor students who were back to school because of the free education introduced by Kwankwaso are voluntarily withdrawing out of school for the avoidably catastrophic mayhem heaped on them instead of curtailing the situation my Governor is busy having a score to settle with the former Governor.

Its of course a fall back plan and joker in the park Governor GANDUJE and his aids have been using ever since he got on the throne to hold the successive government to ransom for according to them no matter how much they would let into the system, the whole credit would still goes to Kwankwaso, now that the situation got worst beyond redemption, they are sinusoidally driving the system as to change the bearing of the credit toward themselves no matter the casualties.

Education in my state is suffering from poor strategic planning and policy implementation under the watch of my elders, elites and Stout and stalwart clerics of ours, to mention the least! in the dilapidated sequential spectrum:

1. Our secondary school calendar has totally been distorted, now public and private schools have different time table which causes detriment to students, now schools were force to go for 3 month holidays.

2. Teachers’s salary is no more promptly unlike past administration where teachers were been paid before month end but now till 13 to 15 of another month.

3. As I mentioned earlier, there is no more free education in kano, now students are to pay for WAEC and NECO registration fee, term fee and other school fees and levies

4. Before coming of this administration, kano state students were to search their termly exams scores online, now the situation has changed to manual search through which another form of fee was mercilessly created and unleashed on the poor students

5. Can we remember Hassan Gwarzo sec. school’s sodomy issue? It has been sent to Rio with all which has been injected and spent on the committee while the report was kept under the carpet.

Albeit the fact that autonomy has been granted to high institutions to spend their internally generated revenue but due to the resuscitation of the school fees by this administration, some VCs and their cronies take advantage of it in which they are now cleaning out and fleecing these funds recklessly to the extent that they can’t even pay salaries of staff, They charge prohibitive fees and levies from poor students which impede rights to education.

Education has become a major business in kano as a result, unscrupulous educational administrators and teachers earn tremendous amount of money on the side by extorting students to cough out money to them through various ways. This means that the inculcation of knowledge is no longer the primary reason for being an educator anymore. In some schools, it is alleged that some teachers/lecturers do not hide their financial schemes as students are told upfront what they need to do if they intend to pass a particular course.

Indeed, an educational system that extols financial quick fixes is not an education at all…..

Kano state is ours and we are very much entitle to our opinions on how to make it better.
God save kano and “kanawan Dabo”

Engr. Ramat is a lecturer from kano ( A public analyst and Human right activist)