Following his commitment to improving the education sector in Kaduna State, Governor Nasir El-Rufa’i has enrolled his six-year-old child, Abubakar, in primary one of a public school as an act of fulfilling a promise he made in 2017.
The governor announced this on the Kaduna government’s Twitter handle @GovKaduna on Monday that Abubakar has been enrolled at the Capital School Malali, Kaduna State.
Fulfilling 2017 Promise
It will be recalled that Mr. El-Rufa’i in a state broadcast in December 2017 promised to enrol his child in a public school when he turns six years.
On 28 Dec 2017, Malam Nasir @elrufai stated that “I will by personal example ensure that my son that will be six years of age in 2019 will be enrolled in a public school in Kaduna State, by God’s grace,” the tweet reads.
The move which he said is part of reforms to revamp public schools in the state to make them more competitive.
“We are determined to fix public education and raise their standards so that private education will become only a luxury,” he said.
In one of Tribuneonlineng reports, the governor recalled that he attended Local Education Authority Primary School Kawo, Kaduna, in the 60s along with children of elites.
“So, if children of elites are in public schools, they will be forced to do all that is necessary to improve the schools,’’ he argued.
Mr. El-Rufai also urged senior officials of the to enrol their children in public schools.
Similarly, this report is coming a few days after Kaduna SUBEB confirmed the commencement of a massive campaign to enrol 145,000 out-of-school children for the 2019/2020 academic year.
According to Premium Times, The board’s Acting Director, Social Mobilisation, Ibrahim Aminu, said the board had earlier mobilised 2,000 education stakeholders as influencers, who would sensitise and mobilise parents to send their children to school.
He added that the campaign, under the World Bank assisted Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA), aimed to enrol 727,764 out-of-school children in the state in the next five years.
“We have trained the 2,000 enrollment influencers, and they have begun community-based house-to-house sensitisation campaign on Monday with huge success so far recorded.
“If every school community will enroll at least 35 out-of-school children in the 4,260 primary schools in the state, we will achieve the 145,000 target.
“Already, we are recording more than 100 pupils enrollment in most schools,” Mr. Aminu said.
Abeeb Alawiye formerly works with The ICIR as a Reporter/Social Media officer. Now work as a Senior Journalist with BBC News Yoruba. You can shoot him an email via [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @habsonfloww