The Sultan of Sokoto, Alh. Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, says the North has failed to move forward in education because of non-implementation of past recommendations.
He spoke on Tuesday in Abuja at the conference organised by the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation with the theme, “Education in Northern Nigeria: Status, Challenges, and the Way Forward”.
Speaking as Chairman of the Northern Traditional Rulers Council, representing 20 first-class traditional rulers, Sultan stressed the need for stakeholders in the North to show more seriousness in the area of implementation of recommendations made to accelerate the development of education.
He said the region would continue to organize conferences to talk about the challenges of education every year if the recommendations of previous panels were not implemented.
He commended a former Minister of Education, Professor Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufai, and her team for carrying out another research whose recommendations he tasked the stakeholders to constitute a committee for its implementation to achieve the desired goals.
He said, “That is our problem, implementation. If we don’t implement, we come back next year for another conference and still talk about the same thing. So, let’s be more serious now because if you have identified a problem, you have half of the solution. Now, let’s look for the other half of the solution so that we can move forward.”
Professor Ruqayyatu made a presentation on the outcomes of the research work done on the current state of education in the North.
She said the report identified the inability to mobilise school-age children, poor release of funds, inadequate political will, and non-availability of offices for guidance and counseling services as some of the challenges to education in the North.
