Damaturu monarch to sensitise district heads on school enrolment
Emir of Damaturu, Alh. Shehu Hashimi II Ibn Umar El-Kanemi, said he would meet district heads and other traditional rulers to discuss ways to improve school enrolment in Yobe state.
The monarch disclosed this during an advocacy visit paid to him by the council committee of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), yesterday, in Damaturu.
The Emir said it has became worrisome that only 3,739 out of 106,000 students enrolled by the NOUN are from the northeast with Damaturu having only 236.
He explained that Boko Haram insurgency had brought a lot of disadvantages to the education sector but that should not justify failure by people to accord needed priority to education.
He urged the NOUN committee to strengthen technical education to help the country diversify its economy. He assured them that the number of students’ enrolment in his emirate will soon increase.
Earlier, the leader of the team, Garba Sani, said they were on advocacy visit to seek for increased enrolment of students in the Northeast geopolitical zone.
According to him, NOUN had enrolment of 106,000 students across the country but, only 3,739 are from the Northeast, which represents only three per cent of the total number.
“The number is very low, that was why a four man committee under my chairmanship was constituted to tour the Northeast and Northwest to create sensitization and awareness,” he said.
The committee chairman also told our correspondent that, NOUN will support the state to achieve its mandate on education, adding that they have taken education to door steps of Nigerians.
“In every single state we have a centre. As at now we have 78 centres and our target is to expand more until we reach all the 774 local government councils across the nation,” he said.