Kano Acting governor, Prof. Hafiz Abubakar, has directed principals of public secondary schools in the state not to accept unqualified students forwarded for admission from primary schools, after purportedly passing the Common Entrance Examination.
“There is no place in the system for such students. Admitting unqualified students is a misnomer which must not be condoned”, the acting governor warned.
He therefore, directed that henceforth, all new intakes into secondary schools must merit the admission, warning however, that principals must ensure that no eligible student is victimized in the process.
The Acting governor, who is also the state Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, gave the directive during an interactive meeting with principals of public secondary schools in the state.
Prof. Hafiz, who expressed happiness on the progress made on the development of the state Education Quality Assurance Policy and Implementation Guidelines, tasked teachers and principals to work at their best to enable students to learn to their utmost.
Noting that although Kano ranked first among the five pilot states on implementation of the new Quality Assurance Policy, the Acting governor asserted that “to consolidate on this achievement, our principals should, therefore, ensure that the school self evaluation is used to catalyze changes in teacher attitude with respect to delivery in order to improve learning outcomes”.
“My dear principals, you need to be more proactive, optimistic, dream the impossible and most important of all, is for you to be very creative and support government policies for the betterment of our dear state”, he charged.
In compliance with the National Council on Education directive that all schools must constitute functional school based management committees, he revealed that the state has gone steps ahead by producing its own policy, to enable it have an edge in the implementation of the initiative, for the benefit of the state education system.
He announced that plans are being fine tuned for improvement of enrollment and decongestion in the secondary sub sector in the state, through the establishment of more junior and senior secondary schools as well as construction of additional classrooms in existing schools, along with required furniture and other facilities.
Prof Hafiz, moreover, dwelt on the “School Support Charges” introduced by the government, to address insufficient teaching aids, working materials and running costs in public schools, warning that his administration would not tolerate abuse of the initiative by any principal or education officer.
On the issues of appointment of senior personnel to manage grade A schools as well as dilapidated accommodation of principals’ quarters in boarding schools, the Acting governor assured that steps would be taken to correct the anomaly.
In his remarks, the state President of All Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools, ANCOPSS, Kano state branch, Alhaji Ahmad Haruna, urged the state government to mobiles parents to be more actively involved in managing schools.
He also appealed for allocation of houses or plots of land for the proposed Teachers Housing Scheme in the state, pointing out that his association is convinced with the commitment of the government to promote service delivery in the education sector.
