Kaduna's free education policy has been successful.

Executive Secretary of the Kaduna State Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr. Bashir Balarabe, recently spoke extensively to SAXONE AKHAINE on the state government's efforts to improve the quality of its primary education sub-sector. Excerpts:


How has the implementation of government's free and compulsory primary education programme fared in the state since it was introduced and what has been the response from parents?


The programme has fared very well because it is really free and no charges are made except for certain levies, which are some form of arrangement between the teachers and the parents. That has nothing to do with the government or any authority. That levy is allowed simply because no allowance is given to the headmaster as running cost and there could be some needs.



If you have about 1,000 or 2,000 pupils in a school, you definitely need some amount of money because a child can fall sick and you need panda and you have to buy it. You don't expect the teacher to use his money or salary to provide for the child. The same applies to sporting apparatus. We need them because we need to encourage the children to exercise their bodies. Therefore, some of these sporting materials have to be provided in the school and we do not expect the teacher to use his money to do that.



Any minor financial requirement has to be settled by the school authority, not by the teacher and that is why we allow this PTA levy to exist. Even at that, under no circumstance should a child be sent out of school for non-payment of that levy. His Excellency has made that very clear and that is an order. Anybody that involves himself in any illegal collection will be dealt with.



The response from the parents is really very encouraging. New schools are being established across the state; more classes are being constructed and teachers are being recruited to ensure that everybody has access to the basic education programme.



The Kaduna State Government votes 27 per cent of its budget for the education sub-sector. How has this impacted on your activities?



It has impacted very positively on education delivery in the state because without this enhanced budgetary allocation, the state would not have been in a position to repair the number of classes that have been repaired at the moment or establish the number of schools that has been established, or increase the number of classes.



That has also made it possible for us to introduce instructional materials and uniforms, which were not being supplied before. All these are the benefits of the enhanced budgetary allocation that the state government has provided. It has also made it possible for the state government to establish a boarding school for the almajirai. This is very important because the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme aims at ensuring that each school age child gets access to basic education.



The number of the almajirai is very large. About one quarter of the total population of our children in Kaduna State is almajirai that are roaming the streets. They may not be our children. They may be children from other states because Kaduna is very central place as the capital of the north. You find many of them coming from other states to settle here. The name of the school is By Lingual Boarding primary school for Almajirai.



So, if a large segment of the children we have in the society are not actually captured in the UBE scheme, then it is not achieving the desired result. It has to be at least 90 per cent to achieve its aim. So, if that chunk of children are out of the UBE programme, then something is wrong. That is why the government is establishing the boarding primary school in order to capture the almajirai.



They will learn the Islamic or Qur'an recitation and also the western education because teachers will be provided. In addition to that, we have Qur'anic schools in various villages and towns and have isolated about 40 of them for the pilot basis and we are planning to send teachers that will teach them western education and some important skills.



They will read their Qur'an and benefit from western education. By so doing, their normal learning is not affected because there will be an arrangement between the teachers and the local government education authority on when western education should be taught and when the Qur'anic education should be taught. We hope that as time goes on, we will capture more of them. The initial figure for the take-off of the boarding primary school is 1,500 and we are starting from primary one.



Apart from the almajirai, there are other child-beggars on the streets...



You are right. This one is now on a pilot basis and gradually, it will be extended to other local government areas. But for the one that is being established now, there is the intention to establish one in each of the senatorial zones.



But this issue must have a regional approach to the solution. If Kaduna State is providing this kind of facilities, what about Katsina? Almajirai from Katsina will be flowing in here, those from Kano will also be coming in and as time goes on, the Kaduna State Government will find it difficult to accommodate them.



So, there is the regional approach that is in the pipeline and everybody will emulate what Kaduna State is doing in order to achieve what we call the basic education programme.



Still on the Almajirai school, in view of the recent Boko Haram crisis, how will you ensure that children are not taught negative tendencies?



We have arranged seminars and workshops for the teachers across the state. This issue has been raised and discussed and they have been warned to desist from any negative tendencies and they are abiding by that. We do not actually allow them to participate in the programme if we feel that their character is questionable.



Do you have a particular curriculum that guides the almajirai schools?



We are using the primary school curriculum for them. I am sure that the brilliant ones will proceed to junior secondary schools as well to the university, because the teaching is going to be comprehensive. In any case, I want to say that it is a blessing for us to introduce western education into the almajirai system, because the teacher that will be teaching them western education in those schools will be in a position to assess what is happening and report. He will be in a position to give them what we call 'special guidance' on what they should do and what they should not do.



Again, we have the Bureau for Religious Affairs and they are involved in the process as far as the learning of the almajirai is concerned. Within the board, we have people who are very vast in Islamic education. If they visit these schools and find out that negative teaching is going on, they will warn the teachers and the authority to actually deal with the situation.



Is the board also in charge of teacher's welfare? What packages have you introduced to motivate teachers in the state?



Teachers' welfare is an issue that is being addressed by the state government as well as the local government. However, what I have not told you is the houses that are going to be provided for the teachers. There is that intention to provide some houses for the teachers in the rural areas because the teachers stay in the urban areas and walk to the schools every morning. That has very negative effect on the teaching and learning of the schools.



If these houses are built, the teachers will stay there and there will be interaction between them and the parents as well as the students so that teaching and learning can actually improve. There is also the End Well scheme. It is a scheme in which every teacher contributes at least N500 monthly from his salary.



That will accumulate till his retirement, when he is expected to collect whatever he has contributed plus 60 per cent interest. No bank will ever give you 60 per cent interest for money you kept with it. It is very encouraging because by the time you retire, you have something to fall back on rather than waiting for your gratuity, which takes sometime to come. Immediately you retire, you get your money within 24 hours.



What are the major challenges you face?



There are a number of challenges. But the major ones have to do with the issue of dilapidated structures that this administration inherited. The structures were in very bad shape and were not conducive for quality learning to take place. We also have the problem of congestion as you find about 60 pupils in a class in some schools and sometimes, you find up to 80 in a class. In that situation, the environment is not friendly for both the teachers and the pupils. No effective teaching and learning can actually take place in that kind of environment.



We also have the problem of teachers because we have very limited number of trained teachers in our schools. The National Certificate of Education (NCE) is supposed to be the minimum qualification for teachers in our primary schools and without qualified teachers in the school, certainly, the quality of teaching and learning will be very low and this has been something of great concern to the society.



There is also the problem of the morale of teachers, which is not very positive. Their pay package was not enhanced and they have been struggling for the payment of the Teachers Salary Structure (TSS), which the federal government actually promised and that was a very serious challenge on our part because we realised that if the morale is low, the output will be low.



Then, we also had the challenge of improving the teaching and learning environment because we require institutional materials since without the instructional materials, the teachers cannot teach very well and the learner cannot learn very well. So, the situation becomes very difficult for both parties. Instructional materials are very vital. A student will have to look at it, read it and understand it. But because of the absence of these instructional materials, the achievement in terms of learning was very low and not very encouraging.



There is also the problem of uniforms. In view of the socio-economic situation of some parents, which is not encouraging, don't send their children to school. Even when they are sent, some of the children feel unfriendly and uneasy seeing their friends with good uniforms while they don't have good ones. Because of this, they cannot pay attention to what they are taught. These are some of the very serious challenges, but the state government is really addressing them.



In terms of addressing these challenges, when the present administration came into office, he (governor) directed that there should be a survey of all our primary schools and even the secondary schools. This is to know how dilapidated they are and what is actually needed for them to be improved and the number of classes required by the schools. This was actually carried out and the report is being followed religiously by His Excellency, and a number of schools have been established while a number of classes have been constructed.



In the same vein, a number of dilapidated structures are being rehabilitated. So, the congestion has been reduced. More importantly, the congestion is being addressed by the action already taken by the state government to build more classes. Right now, we don't have any problem of congestion in our state. In any case, the issue of congestion was only in the urban areas and not in the rural areas.



When we talk about teacher, His Excellency was the chairman of committee set up by the federal government to look into the implementation of the TSS. He was able to come up with a report of at least an additional 27.5 per cent increase on teacher's salary. That has been approved and is being implemented. Very few states have actually implemented that salary structure and Kaduna State is one of the few states that have implemented this and even the arrears have being settled by the government.



We have cases of omission and even those ones are being addressed. As for instructional materials, this is very important and His Excellency has provided adequate funds for that purpose and right now, there is a programme which we call free textbooks and instructional materials. Those textbooks are free and no parent is expected to pay anything for that.



With that, the quality of teachers has to be improved and the environment has to be improved upon. We discovered that once you have the books and read them, you have the opportunity to interact and instead of the teaching being teacher-centred, it's now pupil-centred. Each of the pupils now has instructional materials to go through and the enrolment has improved. At the moment, the enrolment figure is really high and this also has to do with the provision of uniforms by the government.



For example, there are a number of schools that when our tailors went there, they find about 200 pupils, but when they went back to provide the uniform, they will find about 300. That is a very big challenge for us. As for teachers, the governor has already directed all the local government to recruit qualified teachers and that is going on right now. In addition to that, there is a special programme by the federal government, which is called the federal teacher scheme. Under the scheme, the federal government employs NCE holders and posts them to various states across the country that requires additional teachers like Kaduna.



In the first instance, we had 1,800 and the federal government pays their allowances while the state government pays N3,000 in lieu of accommodation. That is very encouraging and it has helped the state to reduce the problem of unqualified teachers. With the recruitment that is being done by the local government, the issue of unqualified teachers if further reduced.



Those who are not qualified whom we inherited at the inception of this government have arranged a special training programme for them with the various institutions such as the National Teachers Institute (NTI) the Federal College of Education and the Kaduna State College of Education. The courses are run on part time basis so that it does not affect the normal teaching and learning activities in their various schools. We have given them a time frame within which they have to qualify or be flushed out. So, efforts are being made by the teachers and everybody concerned to make sure that they improve their teaching qualification.



Last year, the federal government raised an alarm that most states were not coming to access their UBE fund by providing their counterpart funding and using the fund for the purpose it is meant. With Kaduna State, what is the situation?



In Kaduna State, our report is good in that respect because we have accessed up to 2009 and are now waiting for 2010. We are just waiting for permission from the federal government to tell us that the 2010 grant is ready and as soon as we get that directive, we will provide the matching grant and access our funds. Many states have not even accessed up to 2006/2007 grant. We have accessed up to 2009 and we don't have problem with that.