How realistic is Kano free education policy?

Just towards the end of his tenure as governor of Kano, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso declared that indigenes of the state would enjoy free education from primary school up to tertiary institution. However, several month after the declaration, compliance with the policy has continued to remained a contentious issue in the state. While government insisted […]

Just towards the end of his tenure as governor of Kano, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso declared that indigenes of the state would enjoy free education from primary school up to tertiary institution.
However, several month after the declaration, compliance with the policy has continued to remained a contentious issue in the state. While government insisted that it was running a free education, parents on the other hand, said they were paying school fees for their children.
In the midst of the ensuing confusion, there is a widespread belief that the free education policy may not be realistic because it requires adequate funding which could be difficult at this time of economic downturn.
The adequate funding could come either from government, parents and or even from the society itself.
It is observed that at present,  none of the groups could adequately fund education in the state single handedly.
Investigation by Kano Chronicle revealed that the quality of education provided at the Kano pilot model schools was higher than that of other public schools. This might not be unconnected to the fact that at the model schools, parents were made to pay a registration fee of N2,000 and also pay for school books. Because of this, the students were given quality education in an enabling environment.
But at the majority of public schools visited by this reporter, it was noticed that pupils received less qualitative lessons because the schools do not have adequate facilities and instructional materials since no money was paid by the parents.
Kano Chronicle also observed that most of the schools have no adquate teachers and where there are, a number of then are unqualified.
A parent, Malama Lami Muhammad, whose daughter is schooling at a female boarding school in Kano, said she paid examination and PTA fees for her daughter whenever she resumes to school.
Another parent, Alhaji Ado Uba, whose son is attending one of Kano’s tertiary institutions, said he had to spend not less than N27, 000 to take care of his son’s registration.
A secondary school teacher who craved anonymity said the purported free education introduced by the state government was not helping the education sector.
She noted that the funds being given to secondary schools were so meager that teachers had to, sometimes, buy chalk and other instructional materials from their meager take-home to enable them teach the students.
“This free education which Kano State government introduced is not helping the education sector because the money for running the school is not always available. The teachers have to buy some of the teaching materials with our money or we ask the students to come with it as a punishment for an offence committed by them,” she said.
She added that the free education policy was putting head teachers and principals in great hardship.
“I have seen how our principal is always struggling to keep the school moving. Government has cut down its allocation to schools and as a result of that practical lessons could not hold in the science laboratory because there is no money to fuel the generator,” she lamented.
She said state government should embark on sensitization campaigns to make parents and the society understand that free education was not realistic and to also see the imperative of supporting the education sector in the state.
“They should agree that education cannot be obtained free at this era of economic crises”.
Corroborating these remarks, Professor Garba Ibrahim Sheka of Economics Department, Bayero University Kano (BUK) said in a radio programme monitored in Kano that free education was not possible in the state because of lack of adequate resources.
He said if the state government decided to continue with the free education, the end result would be low quality education for the indigenes, “It is unrealistic for Kano state to give free education to all its citizens with this lack of adequate resources”.
Professor Sheka stressed the need for parents to support government in the education of their children because according to him, educating a child was the sole responsibility of his parents, any other person helping the child to be educated; such person was only assisting the parents adding that “in Islam, educating a child is the responsibility of his parents”.
Another contributer, Alhaji Yusuf Bello Yakasai said parents most accept the true that government a lone cannot shoulder the burden of providing free education.
“We should put our heads together to educate our children for a brighter future,” he said.
Commenting on the issue, the chairman, Kano State Parents Teachers Association (PTA), Senator Isa Kachako said his association had concurred on paying N500 for each student, saying parents must pay this to the school where their children were studying.
“Parents must pay this even if it means they would go to forest to cut down a tree and bring it to the market to sell,” he said.
He also agreed that education could not be completely free and advised schools to engage parents and other stakeholders in meetings to address their challenges.
All efforts made to hear from the state government proved abortive because the relevant authority could not be reached for comments.
However, Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje had recently formed two committees namely the State and Local Government Education Promotion Committees with the aim of solving the challenges of education and making the free education policy workable.
The committees were constituted with the objectives of rehabilitating schools to ensure conducive atmosphere of learning and providing infrastructural materials for quality teaching among others.
To achieve that, the state has released the sum of N440m to the committies for onward sharing of    N10m each to the 44 local government areas of the state as take-off fund for improving the standard education in the state.