Kano: Study our education policy document before criticizing-Ex-Commissioner replies Doguwa

By Muhammed Yakubu On Jul 14, 2023

Abdullahi Ganduje, Sanusi Kiru, Haruna Doguwa, Free Education Policy — Former Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje

The immediate past administration in Kano state has said that the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) government ought to have study its policy document on Free Education before making criticisms on it.

SOLACEBASE had reported that Kano State Commissioner for education, Umar Haruna Doguwa had described the past administration free and compulsory basic and secondary education policy as fundamentally defective.

Haruna Doguwa noted for instance, that at G.G.A.S.S Tumfafi, Dawakin Tofa local government area, the students were congested in the classes and seated on bare floors, as nine out of the 16 classes had no furniture at all, while the rest had only a few chairs and desks.

“The fact that many primary and secondary schools in the state lacked furniture, appropriate infrastructure and other resources, as well as a poor boarding schools feeding plan, among other things, indicates that the policy was indisputably defective”, he said.

Doguwa said the school with 1,808 students, has 21 teachers, a block of classrooms, initiated in the school by Tumfafi community was left abandoned, a project which the Commissioner promised to complete, as it would help in decongesting some classes.

However, the former Commissioner of Education in the administration, Muhammad Sanusi Sa’idu Kiru reacted to the present administration commissioner for education, Haruna Doguwa’s comments in a statement on Friday sent to SOLACEBASE.

Kiru said the statement credited to the new commissioner of Education, Umar Haruna Doguwa, where he was quoted to have said that the first ever Free and Compulsory Basic and Secondary Education Policy left behind by the administration of former Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje was defective, is surprising.

The former commissioner in the statement advised Doguwa to relax, go through and understand the policy document which was produced by educational experts, policy administrators, technocrats, development partners, Non Governmental Organisations among others, before embarking on criticism.

‘’Kiru also called on him to swing in to action by providing the basic needs of the schools under the ministry instead of turning into a government official with mouth diahorrea,’’ the statement said.

” I condemned in strong terms, the statements made by my friend and brother concerning the education policy we left behind in just less than two months in office, a duration I honestly described too short for a reasonable government to peruse and condemn a policy that was put in place by professionals in the education sector,” the statement stressed.

According to the statement, the former commissioner further noted that It is very unfortunate that the new commissioner is using political motives to condemn a document which he alone cannot produce.

‘’He observed that this attempt by the NNPP government to rendering the education sector to a political casuality, is a deliberate policy to rubbish the tremendous successes recorded by Ganduje between 2015 and 2023.’’

‘’Kiru stated that the NNPP government should stop the rantings and do the needful by building on the successes recorded in the past eight years by the Ganduje administration.’’

‘’The former commissioner noted that in 2015 when the All Progressives Congress (APC) government assumed office, it met an education system that had not kept with it’s rapidly growing school age population, decayed infrastructure and unacceptably low academic performance.’’

‘’He said Ganduje’s deft move to address the situation within six months in office left no one in doubt over his desires to revolutionize the moribund system.’’

‘’Kiru noted with satisfaction that the various interventions by the former administration produced desired results.’’