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Nigeria: FG Raps Northern States Over Poor Learning Environment
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Vanguard (Lagos)
6 August 2008
Posted to the web 6 August 2008
Emeka Mamah
Lagos
The Federal Government has blamed the 19 northern states over the poor learning environment in the region saying the North should do more to ensure that primary school children do not take their lessons under trees.
It therefore advised the northern states to "put in a lot more resources into basic education" as a way of reducing illiteracy which it stated is a phenomenon recognized and restricted to northern Nigeria .
Minister of State for Education, Hajia Aishatu Dukku made the federal government position on the issue known in Kaduna yesterday while speaking at the "National Conference on Education of the Girl-Child in Nigeria ".
Dukku said that government was aware that "in several states of the North, primary school classes are still held under the shade of trees in the open" adding that the northern state governments need to put in a lot of resources into basic education.
According to her, this should be far in excess of the Federal Government's UBE intervention funds in order to provide conducive learning environment to improve the girl-child education in particular.
The minister said that although the President Umaru Yar'Adua's administration had taken up the challenge of poor funding of education sector, the government was concerned that between 2001 and 2007, the gross enrolment ratio for girls in the country was abysmally low.
"Whereas research has demonstrated that helping girls to school also helps boys through their child friendly school initiative, few states and local government have invested substantially in primary and junior secondary schools," she added.
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Earlier in his speech at the occasion, the Governor of Kaduna state, Mohammed Namadi Sambo blamed the high rate of girls who are out of Schools on early marriage as well as misinterpretation of cultural and Islamic tenets to the disadvantage of girls, apart from poverty and other economic issues.
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