The Kaduna State government has declared free education for all female students in public secondary schools.
The state commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Ja’afaru Sani said the objective of the policy was to increase the enrolment of young girls into school, giving their strategic role to nation-building.
The commissioner said; “a directive has been sent to all the Education zonal offices and secondary schools in the state to immediately commence the implementation of the free education policy.’’
One of the major policies of the Governor Nasir El-Rufai administration shortly after it came to power is the series of reforms it made in the Kaduna state’s education sector.
This includes the declaration of free education for primary school pupils and recruitment of newly qualified teachers.
It had been only the primary school, pupils enjoying the free education which led to Governor El-Rufai’s decision to include secondary school girls as a way of reducing high illiteracy level in the state, especially among the female folks.
Mr Sani also disclosed that ”the newly recruited primary school teachers in the state would be paid their outstanding salaries by end of September this year.”
In addition to clearing all the backlog of salaries, the Education Commissioner said the state government has directed that the responsibility of paying salaries and allowances of primary school teachers be transferred from the local government councils to the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB).
The decision is to enable teachers get their salaries in good time.