Our schools ‘re ready to receive students – Commissioner of Education

Commissioner of Education, Dr. SHEHU  MUHAMMAD  MAKARFI has promised  that his ministry has put everything in place, in line with Covid-19 protocol,  to receive Senior Secondary School (SS3) students in Kaduna State who will be resuming today, in this interview below

Your ministry has announced that senior secondary school students will resume on August 10, what arrangements has the government put in place for schools to receive the students in line with Covid-19 protocol?

The Ministry of Education has announced that SS3 students that will be writing their WAEC soon are invited back to school; boarding students will come back by 9th of August and day students are slated to return on the 10th. We are currently making the environment very conducive for learning, we have an arrangement with the Ministry of Health for the fumigation of all the institutions. They will begin with the boarding schools and we will ensure that the disinfection and fumigation process is completed before students arrive at the schools. We are also clearing the bushes around the school premises so that when students return, they will focus squarely on their studies. In no time, we will start the distribution of facemasks that will be adequate for the staff and students. In the announcement, we also encouraged parents to give their wards extra facemasks so as to complement the ones we will be providing. We will also be providing infrared thermometers and standalone thermometers, which are walkthrough thermometers, that check for temperature soon as you walk through it. It is a device that will help reduce time wasting and provide one entry check point.

We have deliberated with our principals and we asked them to ensure that the class seating arrangement must conform with the social distancing rule. In every gathering of students, there must be a distance of 1.5 – 2 metres between them. During exams, WAEC officials will take over the seating arrangement of observing the Covid-19 social distance protocol. We are also sensitizing parents and other stakeholders to ensure that their wards come to school in an organized way, by arranging public transport to and from schools. We are very conscious of the safety of the students; using public transport can expose them to an infected person and that could spell doom for them. We hereby appeal to parents and other stakeholders to organize how the students will return back to school, by applying all the safety measures. We encourage parents who can transport their wards to school to do so.

The federal government announced that all exit classes should resume, but in the ministry’s announcement, only SS3 students were asked to resume. What happens to the Junior secondary 3 students? 

We are also going to invite them to return, we intend to do it in phases based on the arrangement, resources available and our agreement with major stakeholders. Currently, we are bringing 44,775 students back to school and they are distributed to 370 schools. We want to be very careful in our process of resumption and avoid infection spread amongst students. When we are done with the SS3 students, after a week, we will look into the Junior secondary students’ resumption and make adequate plans for their resumption.

Will government provide facemasks, sanitizers and thermometers to the private schools? 

The state government is providing for public schools only, but we had a meeting with private schools and they are directed to make their own arrangement and report to the Kaduna Schools Quality Assurance Authority, which will ensure that all these protocols are observed before we can allow them resume. It is not feasible for the state government to provide for all private schools, the state government is spending nothing less than a N100 million on the reopening of schools.

Is the state government considering giving private schools some tax breaks or waivers, considering the losses they incurred during the lockdown?

There are ongoing plans by the state government to provide palliatives to all segments of the society, we have done the first and second phases; the third will be launched soon and we anticipate that private and public school teachers will included amongst the beneficiaries. Because teachers have been relentless in their efforts to keep wards busy via the e-learning programme and other social media platforms.

Will the e-learning continue now that schools have resumed? 

Certainly, the e-learning will continue; we have discovered a new world courtesy of the Covid-19 pandemic. We are now exposed to new opportunities and innovations. We have cut down the cost on our infrastructural projects and invest more in information technology so that more of our students will have access to e-learning at home. We can all attest to the fact that it is an effective medium. So far, wards can access the lessons on their mobile phones through our applications and we also have a functioning website. Wards can do assignments, submit online and the teachers will score them and send them their scores. We are appealing to media organizations, to create airtime for educational programmes so that wards can learn from the lesson contents aired on radio and television.

Last year, Kaduna state came first in the WAEC examination in Northern Nigeria. Can this feat be maintained, given that the examination will be written a week after resumption? 

I want to assure you that we are the first in Northern Nigeria to start the e-learning programme and we have engaged a minimum of 10 stations for this purpose both Radio and TV. We have also used all Google applications like YouTube, WhatsApp and all other social media platforms. We also considered the technology deficiency for those in the rural areas and we discovered they are good listeners of radio and we are using the medium to educate them. Our innovation has attracted delegations from other states like Yobe state, whose officials have visited us, to understudy the e-learning programme and our innovations. We have set aside every Wednesday of the week to solve past question papers on television and radio.

KAD Facts

From 2015 to date, Kaduna State Government has achieved the following in the education sector:

1] Renovated of over 400 primary schools in the state;

2] Provided over 200,000 sets of classroom furniture to schools;

3] Recruited over 4,000 secondary school teachers;

4] Recruited over 20,000 qualified primary school teachers;

5] In addition, the government has employed 2,280 science teachers;

6] The government has declared  primary and secondary  education free and compulsory  in the state;

7] It has abolished all forms of levies and PTA charges in all public primary and secondary schools;

8] In 2019, the government set aside N2 billion as seed money for the revamped Kaduna State Scholarship and Loans Board for eligible citizens to access;

9] In 2020, N4.7 billion has been made available for scholarships and loans;

10] Federal and state government employees, including workers in the organised private sector who wish to further their education, can access up to N5 million loan, payable over a period of five years at a single digit interest of 8%;

11] Government has completely overhauled 15 selected historic schools across Kaduna state;

12] Constructed new storey buildings in 30 primary schools which have high population density across the state

13] Regularly pays NECO, SSCE/NABTEB examination registration fees;

14] The government secured full accreditation of the National Universities Commission (NUC) for Twenty (20) Programmes at the Kaduna State University (KASU) in May 2018;

15] In February 2020, KASU secured final accreditation for its medical programme;

16] Government has trained 150 Quality Assurance Evaluators on whole School Evaluation;

17] 420 School Support Officers (SSOs) were trained on their Roles and Responsibilities;

18] The administration has trained 495 JSS teachers on Strengthening of Teachers’ English Proficiency (STEP);

19] Six Science Secondary Schools are being constructed at Pambegua (Kubau LGA), Hunkuyi (Kudan LGA), Rigachikun (Igabi LGA), Buruku (Chikun LGA), Jere (Kagarko LGA) and Manchok, Kaura (LGA).