Governor Yusuf Reaffirms Commitment to Sustaining Education Reforms as UK-Funded PLANE Programme Ends

Kano State Governor, Alhaji Abba Kabir Yusuf, has reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to sustaining the education reforms introduced under the United Kingdom-funded Partnership for Learning for All in Nigeria (PLANE) programme, describing education as the foundation for the state’s future development.

This was contained in a statement issued by the Governor’s spokesman, Sunusi Bature Dawakin Tofa, on Saturday.

The Governor’s position was conveyed by the Commissioner for Education, Dr. Ali Abubakar Haruna Makoda, who represented him at the PLANE Transition Workshop held in Kano on Thursday.

Governor Yusuf said his administration would consolidate the gains recorded under the five-year programme by strengthening education planning, improving teacher development, expanding access to quality learning materials, and ensuring that every child has access to quality education.

He commended the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), PLANE, Save the Children International and other consortium partners for their invaluable support in transforming Kano’s education sector.

The Governor noted that the programme had helped the state generate credible data on out-of-school children through a comprehensive household survey, enabling government to design targeted interventions aimed at reducing the number of children outside the school system.

He also acknowledged PLANE’s contribution to improving foundational literacy and numeracy through teacher capacity building and the provision of teaching and learning materials across schools in the state.

Governor Yusuf assured development partners that Kano State would institutionalise the reforms introduced under the programme and continue investing in policies and initiatives that improve learning outcomes for children.

He reiterated his administration’s readiness to strengthen collaboration with local and international partners to ensure that the achievements recorded under PLANE are sustained for the benefit of future generations.

During the workshop, the Commissioner for Education presented a Letter of Appreciation to the PLANE Programme, represented by the Education Manager of Save the Children International, Stephen Sawa, in recognition of its outstanding contributions to education development in Kano, particularly its support for the Accelerated Basic Education Programme (ABEP).

The event was attended by representatives of the British High Commission, UNICEF, development partners, civil society organisations, education stakeholders and senior government officials, who collectively endorsed key transition actions aimed at sustaining the reforms through stronger government ownership and institutional collaboration.

Education - KNSG, PLANE organize 3-day Procurement Training For Planning Officers Under Education Sector

Press Statement:

Determined to enhance effective implementation of education sector public procurements law, Kano State Government in collaboration with Partnership For Learning For All in Nigeria (PLANE) organized 3-day training programme for members of the sector planning officers of the state ministry of education.

The training programme which took place at Tahir Guest Palace, also had participants from the procurement units of all the agencies under the education sector.

Addressing the Participants during the closing ceremony of the programme on Friday, the State Commissioner of Education Dr. Ali Haruna Makoda disclosed that the Workshop was intended to provide the participants with in-depth knowledge on procurement planning and its benefits for successful implementation.

Dr. Makoda represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry Alhaji Bashir Baffa Muhammad added that the training is in line with the present administration's policies of reviving the education sector through intensive workshop to enhance service delivery.

" The effort is part of the present administration's commitment to justify the recent declaration of state of emergency on education through training and retraining of our staff to achieve effective service delivery.

 " So my coming here is to see how the programme is going on and tell you that your engagement here is going to be a fruitful one " he stated.

He commended PLANE for partnering with Kano State Government on different educational development programmes and assured that the state would continue to give them all the necessary cooperation needed to achieve the intended goals.

To the participants, Makoda urged them to make the best use of what they had learnt during the the programme in improving their performance as planning and procurement officers.

In his remarks, the Project Consultant PLANE Mr. Chukwuma Chinaka revealed that during the training programme, participants were guided through various technical sessions regarding Kano State public financial management law as well as public procurement law.

Chukwuma further explained that as part of the training outcomes, the participants were exposed to the provision of the Kano State public procurement law, enhanced their compliance to the Kano State education sector implementation law and acquired basic knowledge on effective implementation of education sector procurements in Kano State 

Balarabe Abdullahi Kiru

Director Public Enlightenment

Ministry of Education, Kano State

1st February, 2025

Kano Government Strengthens Collaboration With PLANE To Revive Education Sector

Kano State Government has reiterated it's commitment in strengthening collaboration with Partnership For Leaning For All in Nigeria (PLANE) to revive the state education sector.

The State Commissioner of Education Dr. Ali Haruna Makoda gave the assurance on Tuesday while receiving a team from the PLANE (FCDO) office, Kano that paid him a courtesy visit in his office.

In a statement signed by the Director Public Enlightenment of the Ministry, Balarabe Abdullahi Kiru, said Dr. Ali Haruna noted that the intervention programmes implemented by PLANE in Kano had contributed a lot to the present administration's effort in ensuring quality education in the state.

The Commissioner stressed that Kano State Government under the leadership of Alhaji Abba Kabir Yusuf will therefore continue to work closely with PLANE to ensure proper implementation of its new policies on education for the benefit of people in the state.

" We have seen the programmes that you have been undertaking and all the supports you are giving to more especially Kano State Ministry of Education. This is the support that you give to the entire people of Kano State.

" From your good report, you almost taught every aspect of education which is quite interesting and there is no doubt that PLANE is complementing effort of this administration on education development, you are really partners in progress " Acknowledged Dr. Makoda.

On the requests made by the team on other areas of support from the government site, Dr. Ali Makoda said his ministry will ensure that all demands tabled by the PLANE will be adequately attended to achieve better results.

" So, as we really thank and appreciate your intervention programmes on education in Kano, we are still urging PLANE to fully engaged with present administration in providing access to quality education to address out of school syndicate " he stated.

Earlier, the state coordinator PLANE Umar Lawan said the team was at the Commissioner's office to intimate him on the numerous intervention programmes on education sector as executed in Kano by PLANE.

Umar Lawan explained that PLANE is a 7 year project funded by Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in UK and is divided in to three windows to deliver more educational supports to the affected states.

He revealed that in PLANE, there is window one that takes care of getting the system right by improving teaching and learning in schools while window two is given the task of addressing issues on education in emergency.

" We have window three that deals with interface between the programme and the community and it is interesting to note that window one which supports teaching and learning strengthening is operated in three states comprising Kano, Jigawa and Kaduna " he revealed.

He explained that under the project, over 8000 primary schools teachers were trained in Kano and the program was conducted with full collaboration of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB)

Other intervention programmes according to the team leader, include coordination of books distribution and other learning materials at the classroom level across the 532 schools in Kano, supporting 35 school based management committee that sensitized stakeholders on book care and maintenance among others.

Kano Govt, PLANE Organise 3-Day Workshop On Education Sector Performance Review

Kano State Government in collaboration with Partnership For Learning For All in Nigeria (PLANE) have organised a 3-day Workshop on Education Sector Performance Review (SPR) for the year 2023.

In a statement signed by the Director Public Enlightenment of the Ministry of Education, Balarabe Abdullahi Kiru, said the he workshop was aimed at defining the policy position of the education sector and translating the policy in to realistic and costed programme and projects within medium-term sector strategic.

Addressing the participants of the workshop today Sunday at FABS Hotel, Zaria, the State Commissioner of education Alhaji Umar Haruna Doguwa explained that the workshop was part of the present administration effort to align all activities under the education sector with new government policies and implementation strategies to achieve better performance.

He disclosed that following the recent declaration of state of emergency on education and conduct of international conference on education recovery aimed at addressing the problems of education in Kano, the ministry would be holding sector performance review meeting to ensure that things are done according to the prescribed government policy and plan.

" That is why while undertaking our duty, we do spare our time to come and review our performance to see where are we, what have we done right and what are we going to do in the near future so at least, we will know that we are going in the right direction of the present administration policy of improving the education sector " Doguwa explained.

The Commissioner who appreciated the effort of Partnership For Learning For All in Nigeria (PLANE) for supporting Kano Government on education programmes, called on the participants to make the best use of their experiences and come up with a robust and holistic approach capable of addressing the education problems in the state.

Earlier, the Chairman Kano State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) Alhaji Yusuf Kabir explained that the 3-day workshop was intended to enable the participants study what activities transpired in the year 2023 in terms of education plan.

He said the workshop therefore referred to 2023 activities to analyse what actually being implemented under the education sector and...." what activities under the sector that were not being implemented as earlier slated for 2023.

" I am happy to say that we have already got out the activities that we could not accomplished in 2023 and the reasons why we could not do that. So, we have reviewed everything and we are trying to ensure that in August, we come back again to analyse our activities to see what have we done and what we could not deliver " said Yusuf.

The Executive Secretary Kano State Private and Voluntary Institutions Board Alhaji Baba Abubakar Umar maintained that for education sector to move forward, there is need for reviewing and obtaining profer data that could serve as basic ground for planning purposes.

Alhaji Baba Umar said as the state was for long left behind in terms of having tentative data for education planning, the ministry of education and all its agencies would now be fully committed to support the effort of Alhaji Abba Kabir Yusuf in resuscitating the sector.

In her part, the representative of Kano State Accountability Forum on Education (KSAFE) Hajiya Ladidi Fagge reiterated that as participants of the workshop, the forum would continue to track performance of the education sector based on the budgetery allocation given to it to ensure that the budget allocated is been judiciously utilized and government makes prompt releases of funds.

In his paper presentation titled 'Overview of sector performance guideline and content of review report' Director Monitoring and Evaluation Ministry of Planning and Budget Abbas Ilyasu Karaye highlighted the importance of linking policy, plan and annual budget in achieving organisational goals. 

Kano Government Collaborates With PLANE To Revitalize Education Sector

Kano State Government has reiterated it's total commitment to work closely with Partnership For Leaning For All in Nigeria (PLANE) to revitalize the the state education sector.

In a statement signed by the Director Public Enlightenment of the Ministry, Balarabe Abdullahi Kiru, said the State Commissioner of Education Alhaji Umar Haruna Doguwa gave the assurance today Tuesday while receiving a team from the PLANE (FCDO) head office, Abuja that paid him a courtesy visit in his office.

Umar Doguwa explained that so far, Kano benefited a lot from the intervention projects of PLANE which according to him, yielded positive impacts to the present administration commitment in ensuring quality education in the state.

The Commissioner said it is obvious the present administration had inherited the state education sector in a stage of total dilapidation and decay of schools infrastructures and lack of instructional materials resulting to non conducive learning environment.

" We have produced a documentary programme portraying total neglect and decay of the education sector meaning that we have a lot to do in order to address all the challenges of the education sector " said Doguwa.

He therefore maintained that the administration is fully determine to work with relevant stakeholders like PLANE to ensure that all the problems inherited from the immediate past administration on the education sector are critically addresseed.

The Commissioner explained that there are three basic components that the present administration focuses to improve the education sector which bordered around access, quality and infrastructures development in schools.

" Presently, the administration is more concern on the issue of access to education by the out of school children we have in the state and the quality of the education being given to students.

" So, as we really thank and appreciate your intervention programmes on education in Kano, we are still urging PLANE to fully engaged with present administration in providing access opportunity and quality education to our children " he disclosed.

Earlier, the Deputy National Team Lead FCDO Sam Achimugu said the team was at the Commissioner's office to intimate him on the intervention programmes executed in Kano by PLANE specifically on education sector.

He explained that under the project, over 8000 primary schools teachers were trained in Kano and the program was conducted with full collaboration of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB)

Other intervention programmes according to the team leader, include coordination of books distribution and other learning materials at the classroom level across the 532 schools in Kano, supporting 35 school based management committee that sensitized stakeholders on book care and maintenance among others.

He said in an effort to restore the quality of education in the state, Kano Government in conjunction with PLANE had recently formed 19-member Committee to organize a Conference on education recovery, stressing that preparations had gone far for the commencement of the conference.

" This conference is aimed at facilitating technical deliberations on education access, including topical issues like out of school children, Almajiri school system, Qur'anic and Tsangaya education, teacher professional development, girls education and female teacher shortage especially in rural areas among others " he disclosed.

While appreciating the immense support and cooperation given to the project by the administration, Sam explained that to achieve better result of the intervention programme, the ministry should try as much as possible to provide essential document, indicator and ensure sustainability of any development project embark upon with PLANE.