Borno Gov’s Aide Blames North’s Educational Backwardness On Harsh Weather

Almajiri school

Chief of Staff to Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State has given an insight into why most parts of northern Nigeria are educationally backward compared to the southern  region of the country.

Speaking to journalists in Damasak, the headquarters of Mobbar Local Government Area of the  state, Kyari, who is the  governor, said the harsh weather condition of the area was making it difficult for students of the area to perform creditably well under the curriculum of western education.
Kyari, a former member of the House of Representatives, who is aspiring to be elected into the Senate in 2015, said the North would be able to match the rest of the country if the curriculum is adopted to be favourable to the harsh weather condition of most parts of the region.
The aide who was worried by the fact that northern Borno of which he aspires to represent in the country was one of the most educationally backward party of the country, pleaded with the state government and the federal government to change the time of school attendance in most parts of the state in order to get the best out of the students.
He explained that the people of northern Borno lag behind in western education, not because they were unintelligible, but because what exists in the region was the wrong approach to teaching and learning.
Kyari argued that the hot weather in the North was the reason most of the Quranic School in villages adopt the culture of learning at nights and early in the morning; saying the people of the North cannot be described as illiterates.
“Literacy, simply put, is the ability to read and write. And here in my area, we have children and people who can read and write in Arabic scripts. When you ask them to write their names in Arabic, they do it without any difficultly.
“But they can neither read nor write in English. Do you call such a child an illiterate? What we need to do to encourage our children and people in the hot northern Borno is to reorganise teaching and learning process to adapt to our peculiar environment and situation,” he said.
Kyari said his  aspiration for a seat in the Senate was driven by “the desire to serve my people at a higher level of responsibility.”