The Kano State government is worried because some parents are not sending their kids to school. They are talking about taking serious action against parents whose kids are not in school during school hours.
The education commissioner, Umar Doguwa, spoke about this during a meeting with women about why it’s important for girls to go to school.
He said if they find kids coming late to school, they will talk to the parents and explain why it’s important for them to be on time. If the parents don’t listen, they will do something about it.
He said the government won’t allow kids to skip school or be late. They will treat it like they do when teachers are late to school.
Doguwa said parents need to understand it’s their job to send their kids to school. He also mentioned that education is free in Kano State, and the government even provides transportation for kids to get to school.
He talked about how when they started, many schools didn’t have enough chairs or teaching materials.
“When we came on board, we met the education sector in a pathetic situation. We have 5.3 million students in the state, and we met about 4.5 students sitting on the floor without chairs and without teaching materials,” he said.
Some boarding schools were shut down, and this caused more kids to stop going to school. Now, they’re trying to fix things and make sure kids have what they need to learn.
Doguwa recalled how “the previous administration shut down 28 boarding schools. We have over 32,000 students in those schools; after the closure, we now have about 9,000 students in boarding schools. Most of them are now in day schools.”
A woman named Hajia Ladidi Fagge also talked about how closing boarding schools has made more girls stop going to school and start working on the streets.
She said parents, especially women, need to help the government by making sure their kids go to school and finish their studies.
