Katsina State Governor, Aminu Bello Masari, has said that efforts should be intensified on advocacy, especially on issues relating to marriage and divorce as impediment to girl child education.
Governor Masari stated this during a courtesy visit by members of High Level Women Advocacy Group from nine Northern states led by the Manager, UNICEF Girl Child Education Project, Mrs. Terja Vallendingam, to him in his office in Katsina.
According to him, advocacy should be in conformity with the norms and values of the people.
Masari added that parents have a great role to play in educating the younger ones. “With good leadership,careful planning, monitoring and judicious application of resources, the desired objectives could be achieved”, he stated.
The governor noted that while 13,000 classrooms were needed, 15,000 teachers would also be required and the sum of over N45billion would be expended on repositioning the education sector in the state.
Masari assured that the state government would support and cooperate with UNICEF and HILWA officials to bring the desired changes for societal well-being.
In her remarks, the UNICEF Manager of Girl Child Education Project, Mrs. Terja Vallendingam, gave a detailed statistics of out-of-schools pupils and students in the local government areas in Katsina State.
She, however, requested for prioritisation of education, investment in pre-primary education, improvement of the transition from primary to secondary schools, improved quality assurance as well as increased women participation, among others.
The UNICEF official applauded the governor’s efforts on education and called for sustainability.
Also speaking, a former commissioner of information and president of the state chapter of HILWA, Hajiya Mariya Abdullahi, disclosed that a bill would be developed to demand for for thirty percent space for women participation in governance.
Abdullahi expressed appreciation to Governor Masari for his dedicated stand to develop education in the state.
Meanwhile, the Katsina State Government has inaugurated a committee to verify projects executed under the State Universal Basic Education Board, STEB and the education ministry by the Masari administration from inception.
At the inauguration in katsina, Governor Masari urged the committee to identify contractors with poor standard of project execution for blacklisting.
According to him, government wanted quality and not quantity, warning that those with poor project execution would have themselves to blame.
He also charged the committee to look into ways of keeping maintenance record of schools’ infrastructure, device means of involving head teachers to be accountable for pupils and infrastructure in schools.
