The Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, on Tuesday, distributed resources to schools in the state as part of the state’s measure to strengthen its free and compulsory education policy.
The event, which focused on launching of distribution of free education in the state also saw the unveiling of 10,000 copies of Teen Trust, a Media Trust publication to help improve schoolchildren reading culture in the state.
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Speaking at the event, Ganduje said the state has been able to judiciously use its resources via the policy to reduce the number of out-of-school children in the state.
“When we say free, we mean children will no longer pay school fees and by compulsory education, we mean it is necessary and not optional, the right of children to education.
“We are distributing textbooks of English and Mathematics for JSS1-3 and SS1-3 as part of educational facilities.
“We are also providing cheques for the maintenance of our schools on daily basis and we have also introduced additional innovation by adding other aspects of Islamic knowledge and western education in our three Tsangaya school system so that the curriculum will go beyond recitation of the Holy Quran only.
“Also, we have entered into an agreement with Daily Trust for the production of this newspaper, Teen Trust to inform, educate and entertain our schoolchildren so that they can develop their reading culture. I think this is a new initiation and innovation by them in order to educate our children especially in this northern part of the country.
“We are also providing motorcycles to our educational supervisors to ease their works of ensuring quality education in our schools. We are also distributing tablets computers to our education officers to be able to provide vital data without physically coming to the headquarters,” Ganduje added.
Speaking earlier, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Media Trust Limited, publishers of Daily Trust and other titles, Alhaji Kabiru Yusuf said the company acknowledged the poor reading habit in the country and how it will take a generational change to turn things around and as such came up with Teen Trust to inculcate reading culture in the hearts of the school children.
Accompanied by one of the Directors of the Media Trust Board, Alhaji Aminu Dangana and Abdullahi Mainasara, the company’s General Manager, Northern Operations, Yusuf said the Teen Trust, which started over six years ago, is a weekly publication.