Sokoto State enrolls over 75,000 children to basic education in 2020

The Sokoto state government under the Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) has enrolled over seventy-five thousand children into basic schools in the state last year.

The State government, under the programme, targets over 90,000 children for enrollment.

Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, stated the development at the official flag-off of BESDA enrolment drive campaign for the year 2020/2021 in Wamakko local government area.

According to Governor Tambuwal, under the programme, over 1,513 integrated Quranic Schools have been created just as teachers have been recruited and provided with books and instructional materials.

Utmost priority

The governor stated that since inception of the present administration, education has been given utmost priority through the allocation of higher percentage in budgetary allocation.

He said various programmes have been introduced to the system to improve educational development in the state and gave assurance that his administration would continue to invest in education.

The Governor thanked the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, traditional rulers, and all the Ulama and stakeholders for their support to government programmes in the state, particularly on education..

He also commended Sultan Abubakar on his leadership role in a consultative committee on education in the state.

Governor Abubakr gave assurance of his continued support and cooperation to improve education in the state.

He said the committee have tremendously impacted on the sector by renovating and constructing schools and classrooms where necessary, and to also provided instructional materials.

Tambuwal also thanked developing partners: Unicef, NEI+ and Action Aid, among others, for their support to the enrollment drive in the state.

The Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Muhammadu Guiwa, said since 2016 to date 247,884 children have been enrolled in the state.

The commissioner said based on the schools census statistics in 2020/2021, the state government now has 2,065 primary schools with the 965,535 pupils comprising of 546,675 boys and 420,860 girls. In the Junior Secondary Schools (JSS), there are 5 schools with the 128,110 students comprising of 78,743 male and 49,367 female; as well as 132 Senior Secondary Schools with the 86,136 students which comprises of 54,498 male and 31,638 female.

The Commissioner explained that the statistics showed that presently, the state government has 1,179,781 in all the schools compared to 742,679 in 2014/2015.

The Sultan Abubakar who spoke through the District Head of Binji, Alhaji Kabiru AbdulWahab, commended the state government for its giant stride in various sector, particularly in education.

He called on all the District Heads in the state to cooperate with BESDA officials in order to achieve the desired objectives.

Lateefah Ibrahim