Kano State Commissioner of Education, Dr Ali Haruna Makoda, has said that the State Government has made education a priority in the last three years.

Dr Makoda, who spoke during the media tour of federal and state government projects in Kano over the weekend, disclosed that the state government has budgeted over N430 billion for education in this year’s budget.

The commissioner stated that the state governor, Abba Yusuf, declared a state of emergency in education due to the decay in public education facilities in Kano State.

According to him, the state government allocated the sum of N29.75 per cent to education in the 2024 budget, and later increased it to N31.5 per cent in 2025.

“In 2026, when the governor presented a total budget of N1.4 trillion, the first of its kind, the Ministry of Education took 30 per cent of the entire budget. The quantum it set aside is over N430 billion,” he explained.

Dr Makoda stated that this reflected in school enrollment, which he put at over 4.9 million, “and we do set aside a substantial amount of money for the uniforms for the school pupils.

“We have also distributed instructional learning and teaching materials. We also recruited more than 18,000 teachers across the states, and the exercise is still currently ongoing.”

The commissioner stated that the state government sponsors candidates for NECO, JAMB, WAEC and other examinations.

“This year alone, we set aside N4.4 billion to sponsor more than 183,000 students,” he added.

He also disclosed that the Kano State government registered 13,600 almajiri pupils in Arabic and Islamic schools.

“Our state is leading the statistics on the number of out-of-school children,” he said, adding that the state government recently constituted a committee to ascertain the exact number so that it will help us to plan very well.