According to the Ministry of Education, the Federal Government’s school feeding programme had led to increased enrollment of primary 1-3 pupils from 1.2 million to 2.1 million in Kano state.
Education commissioner Muhammad Salisu-Kiru disclosed this at the third stakeholders’ meeting with the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) 2021 held at the ministry on Saturday in Kano.
“Before, Kano had 1.2 million primary 1-3 pupils, but during our last annual school census, the figure had increased to 2.1 million.
“I decided to constitute a committee to ensure that the Federal Government validated and accepted the new figure.
“The ministry has already sent delegates, including a consultant, on a validation of the new data to be submitted to the Federal Government”, he said.
Kiru further explained that all the relevant stakeholders, including the education secretary across the 44 local governments, Chairman, Community Promotion committee, Chairman SUBEB, were involved in the conduct of the exercise.
He added that National Orientation Agency(NOA), National Population Commission, National Youth Service Corp (NYSC), UBEC, and State Education boards for effective results would be involved in the next census exercise.
“I am very sure that after the exercise is conducted, Kano would have more the 2.1 million pupils, since it is free and compulsory education.
“I know children are rational when they hear of the school feeding they would love to go to school and learn.
“Kano state has benefited a lot from the Federal Government, and every month about N1.5 billion is allocated to the school feeding programme”, he said.
The Commissioner also said that the number of vendors, who cooked for the pupils in schools, had increased from 9,511 to 12,258 due to an increase in the number of children in the schools.
He said they were being paid regularly, and a monitoring team went round the primary schools in all the 44 local government areas to ensure that each vendor cooked the food on time.
In the same vein, the programme’s focal person, Baba Aminu-Zubairu, disclosed that Kano had the highest number of pupils under the feeding programme despite its suspension last year due to the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020.
“All the relevant stakeholders involved should ensure they sensitise parents who take their wards to help them on the farm to take their education seriously”, he said. NAN
