Uba Sani’s education reforms target quality, wider access — Dep gov

The Kaduna State Government has said its ongoing reforms in the education sector are aimed at expanding access to quality learning and equipping young people with the skills and character needed to become productive members of society.

Deputy Governor Hadiza Balarabe stated this on Tuesday at a community engagement organised by the Kaduna State Schools Quality Assurance Authority.

Balarabe described education as a collective responsibility requiring the involvement of government, teachers, school managers, parents, learners and communities.

“Education is not the responsibility of government alone. It is a shared responsibility involving government, teachers, school managers, parents, learners, communities and all stakeholders,” she said.

She said education starts at home, is developed in schools and strengthened by the wider community, stressing that all stakeholders must work together to improve learning outcomes.

Balarabe said reforms introduced by the Uba Sani administration were changing the experience of pupils in Kaduna schools, including efforts to strengthen quality assurance across the state’s 23 local government areas.

She said the government was providing Education Quality Assurance Officers with motorcycles and other operational support to enable them to reach schools in remote communities, identify challenges and assist school managers in addressing them.

The deputy governor also cited the introduction of hybrid computer-based testing for the Junior Secondary Certificate Examination, QR-coded certificates and enhanced examination monitoring as measures designed to improve the integrity of the state’s education system.

She added that since 2023, the administration had supported more than 800,000 students sitting for Junior Secondary School and Senior Secondary School examinations.

The Director General of the Kaduna State Schools Quality Assurance Authority, Prof. Abubakar Usman Zaria, said the administration had also changed the approach to monitoring schools.

“We have been transforming quality assurance—from fault-finding to value creation; from paper to data; and from inspection to continuous improvement,” Zaria said.

He said school monitoring was being moved from paper-based reporting to digital and real-time evidence through the EduMonitor App.

According to him, the authority has standardised and automated more than 20 quality assurance tools covering areas such as examination clearance, candidate affiliation, school categorisation, proposed school-site assessment, textbook assessment, private-school licensing and annual quality assurance reporting.

Zaria said the state had also introduced a waybill system for tracking examination materials and QR codes on Basic Education Certificate Examination certificates, Certificates of Consent and annual private-school operating licences.

He said the measures were intended to strengthen verification and protect the documents against fraud and forgery.

The director general added that private schools were now required to submit annual quality assurance reports as part of the licence renewal process.

He said the authority had provided 50 motorcycles for field officers across the 23 local government areas, alongside monthly operational and monitoring allowances, to improve the reach of inspectors, particularly in hard-to-reach communities.