By Hamidu Sabo
Katsina
Katsina state government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with PZ Foundation and Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) for the training of primary and secondary schools teachers in the state.
At the signing ceremony at the Katsina Government House yesterday, Governor Aminu Bello Masari, while reiterating his administration’s determination to shore up the education sector in the state, declared that the level of decay in the sector was unacceptable and as such his administration would spare no resources and time in the resuscitation of education at primary and secondary schools levels.
According to him, Katsina state, which used to set the standards in education in the North, “now lags behind all, but one or two states in the region.”
He lamented that only about 10 per cent of secondary school students “who sit for NECO and WAEC from the state usually make the grades with five credits and above.”
He said: “The level of decay in the education sector is unacceptable, and no responsible leader will be content with the deplorable state of education in the state.
“We will invest all we have to boost education at the foundation level, and in doing that we are ready, willing and prepared to partner with like-minded organisations that will assist us achieve our goals.”
Teachers training and retraining, he noted, were necessary in any effort aimed at turning around the comatose state of education in Katsina, commending PZ Foundation and VSO for “keying into what is closest to our heart.”
Masari stated that rehabilitation and expansion works on some primary schools across the state had commenced in earnest in an exercise expected to cover every part of the state in due course.
The memorandum was signed by the Commissioner for Education, Prof. Halima tune Sa’adiya Idris, on behalf of the state government, while
Engineer Tunde Oyelola, vice-chairman of PZ Foundation and Alhaji Abubakar Usman, Country Representative of VSO, signed on behalf of their respective organisations.