By Hamidu Sabo
Katsina
The fate of over 2, 832 Almijiris enrolled into Tsangaya Model Primary School is hanging in the balance following the suspension of the programme in Katsina.
Blueprint gathered that the programme is not longer funding since the inception of Aminu Bello Masari administration six months ago.
A reliable source at the Ministry of Education revealed that no single kobo had been released for the scheme since April, this year.
According to the source, the Tsangaya school was established two years ago by the Ibrahim Shema administration to take away almajiris from the streets.
Our findings revealed that 1427 out of 2, 832 integrated into the Tsangaya school were males, while 1396 were females were indigenes.
The schools were established in five local government areas, as a pilot scheme, at Daura, Batsari, Danmusa, Dutsin-ma, Funtua and Katsina metropolitan.
In his reaction, a resource person from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Dr. Usman Bishir, called on the state government to sustain the scheme.
He made the call yesterday during a two-day workshop on the fallen standard of education organised by USAID/Voice of America (VOA) for journalists in Katsina.
Bishir said “it will be great lost if the Masari administration abandoned the Tsangaya programme,” adding that within the last two years, street-begging had drastically reduced in Katsina.
He said the records indicated that the past administration expended the sum of over N864 million in integrating the almajiris, providing food, clothes and medicine for them.
According to him, it is quite unfortunate that both the pupils and their 31 teachers employed for the scheme were in limbo.
“There technical issues we are taking care of to ensure that there is no multiple voting by anybody because the card readers are polling booth specifics, which rules out the possibility of people voting in more than one polling booth. We have made effort to achieve e-collection and e-transmission of results as that will be the only way out of any foreseeable or unforeseeable election malpractice,” Yakubu said.
Earlier in her remarks, the committee chairperson, Hon. Aishatu Jibrin Dukku while commending the commission for a job well done in the conduct of the 2015 general where the opposition party won the Presidential elections for the first time also called on the new team to improve on the nation’s electoral processes.
