It’s disheartening

A former student of the school, Abdurahman Ado, who graduated in 1999, said it has become a ghost of its former self.

“I know how good products of the school used to be. Today, the environment is not conducive for students to learn because equipment for practicals is not there. How can students learn under broken and leaking roofs?”

Mr Ado called for a total renovation of the school.

Restoration agenda and huge budgetary allocations to education

In the build-up to the 2015 general election in which he was elected governor, Mr Masari titled his campaign “the restoration agenda” with a promise to revive the key sectors in the state. He mentioned education as the top in the list of prioritised sectors to be revamped.

The state government, from 2016 to date, allocated huge sums to the sector in its budgets. According to official data, in 2016, Mr Masari budgeted N22.2 billion while N16 billion was budgeted in 2017. In 2018, he budgeted N42.4 billion and N19 billion in 2019. Education got N24.5 billion in 2020 and N19 billion for this year.

During the 2017 budget presentation, Mr Masari said his government had spent about N3 billion on construction, rehabilitation, renovation and upgrade of secondary schools for the 2016/2017 fiscal year. The government did not provide the list of the schools that benefitted from the expenditure but apparently, Government College Funtua did not benefit.

The Commissioner of Education in the state, Badamasi Charanci, did not respond to calls and SMS sent to him by this reporter on the situation of the school.

After several visits to Mr Charanci’s office at the Bello Kofar Bai State Secretariat, this reporter could not meet the commissioner. Officials of the ministry refused to provide the reporter with information on the schools renovated or built by Mr Masari and how the education budgets were spent since 2016.

A former chairman of the ex-students association of the school, Abdulmuminu Aminu, who is a retired colonel and former military governor of Katsina State, and the incumbent chairman of the association, Musa Danladi, also did not respond to SMS and calls seeking their comments on what the association was doing to help the school.

“We construct over 2000 classrooms” – Masari defends Restoration Agenda

In November 2020, during an education summit organised by the state government, Mr Masari said his administration had not derailed from its core campaign promises of restoring the glory of Katsina State, especially in the education sector.

The governor, who was represented by Mannir Yakubu, his deputy, said “there was the establishment and construction of seven new secondary schools in Katsina State. This is in addition to rehabilitation of 38 secondary schools and partial renovation of 37 schools due to storm damages and dilapidations.”

He said the state government had committed a lot of resources to the education sector from 2015 to date.

He added that the sector has “witnessed holistic revolution in the areas of infrastructural development, staff employment as well capacity building of teaching and non-teaching staff.”

The deputy governor said: “In the Basic Education Sub Sector, this administration has constructed and rehabilitated over 2,294 classrooms, 1334 offices and store were renovated. There is also the upgrading of 12 primary schools into storey buildings.

“Also 930 toilets were constructed in various primary schools across the state aimed at improving the sanitary condition of both pupils and teachers. This is in addition to drilling of 70 boreholes in some primary schools in the state,” he said.

*Not real name. The subject asked not to be named because he still serves as a consultant to the Ministry of Education in the state.