Education has collapsed in Katsina –Masari

Former speaker, House of Represen­tatives and gover­norship candidate of All Progressives Con­gress (APC) for Katsina State, Bello Masari, at the weekend vowed to make education his priority if elected in the 2015 general election.

He said the state faced a bleak future in education if challenges facing it were not promptly addressed. Masari spoke at a dinner organized for him by friends and associates at Transcorp Hilton, Abuja.
Justifying his decision to make education a priority if elected, the former speaker said the state had continued to record dismal performance in critical examinations like WAEC for three consecutive years predicting that the situa­tion would soon get to a point where students from the state would no longer pass qualify­ing examinations to universi­ties.
Masari said: “If you look at Katsina State’s WAEC results this year, out of the over 43,500 who sat for the examination, only 4,500, or if you like, 10.2 per cent got five credits that would enable them pursue higher education or for them to be admitted into universities. Therefore, in the next four to five years, it will be hard to see graduates of Katsina State. This is what it means.”
He blamed the pitiable situ­ation on the “educational de­cay in our state,
it is the leadership failure. Government, with neces­sary commitment, could have saved the situation and in do­ing that, there will be the cre­ation of job opportunities for our indigenes. If you invest in education, all these drug ad­dicts that we see on the streets, you won’t see them again, because we are responsible in making them what they are. If government had provided an enabling environment, provide them with sound education; they would have been produc­tive to the state.
“That is why we put it to ourselves that we must revive the dignity of our state, un­der our policy of ‘Restoration  Project’. We have planned to reinvigorate primary and sec­ondary education in Katsina State. If you say what of the university, yes we not unaware of the university education, but let us make the foundation a sound one. No matter what you will have in the university, if the grassroots education re­mains substandard, it is base­less.
“If you look at our neigh­bouring states, they are doing this. Go to Kano, Osun and other APC states, you will see how education is being ac­corded attention, and students are well kitted with necessary learning materials. That is why during our administration, we would make sure that Katsina State students attend public schools, not private ones.”