The Kano state Ministry of Education in collaboration with Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) project, on Friday, donated learning and teaching materials to 100 students living with disability in the state.
The students are part of the 1,000 beneficiaries identified to benefit from the gesture as a way of ensuring inclusiveness in the state’s free and compulsory education for all.
According to the state’s Commissioner for Education, Ali Haruna Makoda, the initiative is targeting students with special needs as a way of empowering them to study.
SPONSOR AD
Makoda, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Bashir Muhammad Baffa, said the distribution is just a tip of the iceberg as they are targeting about 5,000 students with special needs who will benefit in batches.
“This is part of the state government’s policy of ensuring inclusion in free education. We make sure that the right beneficiaries are identified and selected for the project,” the Commissioner added.
He said the materials given to the students include schools bags, uniform, lunchbox, writing and reading materials, cognitive devices and electronic calculators among others.
The Commissioner also said the state has earmarked over 31 percent of its annual budget, which he said is even more than the United Nations minimum required percent.
Also speaking, the State Project Coordinator, AGILE, Mustapha Aminu Maisalati, said there are presently about 11,000 disabled students in the state and the project is trying to reach all of them gradually.
He also said the project has renovated many schools, especially the Tudun Maliki Special Schools, provided materials to them and improved it to a good condition.
He said “Our aim is to make sure that every child, including those with disability, has access to basic education.”
Also, the state’s Commissioner for Women Affairs, Children and the Disabled, Amina Sani, represented by the acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Muhammad Sambo, said due to the importance the state government attaches to PLWDs, it created a whole department for them and put one of them to head it.
