Kaduna community school is yet to be fixed while students learn in a dilapidated environment despite over N149.64 billion the Kaduna state government allocated to education in three years.
Children of Kahugu, a community with over 40, 000 residents in Lere Local Government Area of Kaduna state continue to learn under a deplorable condition as the Government Secondary School, Kahugu which serves them has since collapsed and needs urgent state intervention to get it fixed.
This is even as the Kaduna state government in 2021 allocated 25% (N59.6 billion) of her total annual budget to education. And, in 2020 allocated 25% (N64.64 billion) to the education sector with capital expenditure pegged at N44.9 billion, also in 2019, the state allocated N25.4billion capital budget to education.
Good as the allocations seem, Government Secondary School, Kahugu is yet to feel the impact of the huge sum as the school has since collapsed with the children attending it learning under a huge deplorable condition.
Tracka, a public accountability organization that exposed the dilapidated nature of the school, has since appealed to Mr. Nasir El-rufai, the Kaduna State Governor to help fix it and make chairs available for students to learn in a conducive environment.
Apart from allocating huge sums of money to education, part of the Kaduna State response has been to enact legislation that will allow for free compulsory education from primary to secondary for both male and female children.
This is even as the state boasted that from 2020, every child in Kaduna State must have 12 years of free, compulsory primary and secondary education.
The state disclosed that free education is her part in pursuing the enforcement of the UBE Act, Child Welfare and Protection Law, and the Street Hawking (Prohibition) Law in Kaduna.
The state assured that it will put in place a task force team, made up of Education Marshalls, and the Kaduna Vigilance Service that will guarantee no child in Kaduna State roams the street during school hours while pointing out that if any child is found roaming the street during school hours, the parents or guardians will be prosecuted according to the law of the state.
Although the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in 2019, said 39% of children in the North-west, except Kaduna, are out of school, the situation in Kaduna shows that abduction of school children, insecurity, and poor infrastructure are some of the fundamental factors that have since punctured the UNICEF claim.
Therefore, the Kaduna state government must in its response to addressing education, must begin to think in terms of not only ensuring that monies meant for education are properly utilized and accounted for but puts security at an integral part of her education intervention.
MAWA FOUNDATION could not immediately reach out to the Kaduna state government for a response.
Dear @elrufai
This is the deplorable State of Government Secondary School, Kahugu in Lere LGA, Kaduna State.
Where the students learn in an unpleasant condition.
Needs: Renovation and furniture.
We URGE you to reach out to the relevant authorities to do the needful. pic.twitter.com/1BNbv9Vmby
— TrackaNG (@TrackaNG) June 15, 2021