How north can regain its education glory
Miller for instance, said he had discovered regular communication among people in the north when he first came to the area; he came and met a people that were communicating through writing.
Also, at that time, governmental activities were taking place in the Sokoto Caliphate through writing. The caliphate from the centre was communicating to the various emirates in other parts of the region in writing and the various emirates were communicating to the caliphate in writing as well.
Furthermore, transactions in the markets were recorded and judgments and proceedings in the courts were also recorded in northern region.
Masanawa in Katsina State, for instance, is a renowned district for scholars, teaching and learning as well as other economic activities. The area had been in touch with scholars as far back as 1595, when learned persons visited the area from Egypt.
Among them was Malam Dan Masani, whose real name was Abu Abdullahi Abduljalil bin Muhammadu Masani. He was said to have arrived in Katsina for the trans-Saharan trade and eventually settled there.
According to a historian and author of a book titled ‘History of Masanawa’ Abdullahi Kasim, Dan Masani’s arrival brought so many students to the area and his students spread across various places. He wrote several books before he died in 1669.
Kasim said over the years, this dynasty of knowledge continued to prosper and spread across the country. Dan Masani made Katsina a citadel of knowledge.
However, since the area blossomed with education, till date, people still come to Masanawa in search for knowledge given its antecedents and various schools of knowledge that abound there, he added.
A one-time vice chancellor of the Bayero University Kano (BUK), Professor Emeritus Dandatti Abdulkadir, has traced the genesis of education in the north to the era of Shehu Usman Bin Fodio, the founder of Sokoto Caliphate.
“Bin Fodio wrote books long before the coming of Europeans and onlanguage,literature,Islamichistory, and even on the Hausa language. His daughter Asama’u also wrote many books on Fulfulde and Abdullahi bin Fodio his brother equally wrote a lot of books on literature, history and political science.
“Some of Abdullahi’s works are now in the United Nations -The Light of Knowledge, The Light of Politics, The Light of Administrations, and translation of the Holy Qur’an. Muhammad Bello, the son of Sheikh Usman bin Fodio also wrote many books on Medicine and students of medicine abroad use the book in their researches. All his books were written in classic Arabic which he studied here - he did not travel anywhere to study,” he said.
He added that: “When the Europeans came they met us with our culture, tradition and our attires. We made everything we used in our houses. So the best thing they did was to try to change the pattern of teaching.
“They started with Katsina College, which they affiliated to one of the colleges in London so all the students produced in Katsina College felt that they belonged to the European system.
“But to be fair to them they were the ones who fought for our independence - Tafawa Balewa, Sardauna of Sokoto, Isa Kaita, Aliyu Makaman Bida, Malam Yahaya Gusau - were all products of Katsina College,” he said.
According to Professor Salihu Shehu of the Department of Education, Bayero University, Kano, the region has rich heritage of learning and scholarship.
However, he lamented: “It is unfortunate that now the region gives lip service to learning, scholarship and education: it is indifferent to learning. The north is therefore unfortunately lagging behind educationally.
“There are historical
routes to the educational imbalance between the north and the south. Southern people had earlier contact with missionaries and there was resistance to western education in the North,” he said.
He explained that this imbalance had continued even though northern government and the state governments have taken steps to close the gaps, noting that “in most cases there is either inconsistency in the measures taken or there is lip service and lack of commitment.”
Professor Dandatti therefore, advocated for the implementation of the 26 percent UNESCO budget on education, saying, “During the era of the late premier, Sir Ahmadu Bello he used to give 40 percent of the budget to education, Awolowo 50 percent and also free education from primary to secondary. So we have to do what Awolowo and the late premier did or at least we should give 26% of our total budget to the sector. Now the allocation is sometimes 9 percent or even less.”
He said: “If you go to former French colonies like Niger republic, Senegal and so on still they are allocating 26/27 percent to education. If we do that we will be able to reclaim the quality of education and the standard will be regained.
“Individuals, our wealthy people, should set up foundations like we see in other parts - like South South and South West. They have foundations; Abiola had a big foundation when he was alive.”
For Alhaji Isa Abdullahi Soba (Danejin Zazzau), a teacher, former principal and educationist, overpopulation of students, lack of adequate funds, infrastructure, trained and qualified teachers and lack of adequate incentives for teachers are some of the reasons for the north’s backwardness educationally.
He said: “The population of our schools is so high that control is always difficult. Next to that is funding. The schools are many to the extent that the funds available cannot take care of them. There is need for training our teachers.
“If the north wants to have it right, the aforementioned problems and many others have to be addressed,” he said.