Gov. Aminu Masari of Katsina State said the State Government had earmarked N2.5 billion in the 2018 budget for the establishment of 10 nomadic primary schools in parts of the state.
Fielding questions during an interactive session with members of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) in Katsina, Masari said the state government would also build 10 clinics for the children of nomads in different locations in the state.
He said the state government would build more primary and secondary schools in rural areas to increase enrollment and improve the standard of public schools.
On girl-child education, the governor said the state government had trained more than 1,000 NCE teachers (women) as part of efforts to boost female enrollment in schools.
The governor said the government had also established special schools for girls, as well as rehabilitated all girls schools in the state.
He also said that women formed 60 per cent of beneficiaries of the state government’s empowerment scheme, leaving only 40 per cent to others.
Masari said the level of decay in the sector was disturbing, saying,“ when we assumed power, there were no teachers, no classes and the remaining structures were in a sorry state.’’
He said his administration inherited about 1.2 million pupils in the school register but that when proper audit of the pupils was taken, it was discovered that only 743,000 were enrolled.
“We also discovered that we had a deficit of 15,000 classes and 13,000 teachers. So, we embarked on massive rehabilitation of the schools and recruitment of teachers to address the situation,’’ he said.
He,however, said that the situation had changed as about 63 per cent passed WAEC with at least five credits. (NAN)