Challenges facing Katsina State Education Sector I: A Look at Some

Indicators
By

Muttaqha Rabe Darma, PhD, DBA

President Pleasant Research and Development Group (PREDG)
Umaru Yaradua Human Development Center, Katsina
mrdkt@live.com
From the annual school census report (ACSR) for the session 2019/2020, every
school day during the school year some 3,042,062 children, mostly between the
ages of 4 and 12 years in primary schools and young people, mostly between the
ages of 12 and 19 years in junior and senior secondary schools attend one of the
4,098 public or private schools in Katsina state (ASCR, 2021). A summary of the
schools' types and the number of students that attend those schools are reproduced
in the table below.

Case Public Public JS Public SS Public Private Total

Pre- and Schools Tech.,
Primary Voc., &
Schools FGC

Number of 2,813 321 246 7 711 4,098

schools

Number of 2,284,613 318,141 213,633 6,473 219,694 3,042,062

Students

Number of 25,181 4,943 4,872 12,331 47,327

Teachers

Number of 15,201 3,811 2,979 130 6,758 28,879

usable
classes

Qualified 20,364 4,065 4,168

Teachers
 % 81% 82% 86%
qualified
Teachers

Table 1: Number of Schools, Students and Teachers during 2019/2020 session.

Source ASC (2021)

These students and pupils are taught by more than 47,000 teachers, the majority of
whom are qualified. From the summary of the report in table one, the average
teacher-student ratio stood at 64 more than the national average of 40. Katsina state
as at the 2019/2020 session had about 29,000 usable classrooms translating to 105
students per classroom more than the national average of 50 students per
classroom.

The Majority of these students and pupils 2,822,860 representing 93% attend public
schools, while the remainder attends non-government or private schools. It should,
however, be noted that the Annual School Census Reports for the sessions obtained
did not include several community schools, which are estimated to also have close to
200,000 students. Most of the students in early primary schools are girls with a
gender parity index (GPI) of 1.10 in primary 2 reducing to 0.86 by primary 6 class
level (see table two). For the 2018/19 session, the GPI was 1.13 in the primary one
but reduced to 0.87 by primary six. These two sessions indicated that girl-children
enrolled early in primary schooling and drooped from school as they progress.

  2019/2020     2018/2019    

Class Level Girls Total GPI Girls Total GPI

Primary 1 219,716 428,380 1.05 233,839 440,090 1.13

Primary 2 214,516 408,990 1.1 186,943 375,904 0.99

Primary 3 178,183 357,295 0.99 159,191 333,973 0.91

Primary 4 150,890 315,513 0.92 138,672 294,905 0.89

Primary 5 131,629 279,843 0.89 123,152 266,924 0.86

Primary 6 119,190 257,334 0.86 116,973 251,672 0.87

Total 1,014,124 2,047,355 0.98 958,770 1,963,468  

Table 2: Primary School Enrolment by Gender and Level 2019/2020 and 2018/2019
academic sessions Source: ACS (2021; 2021)

This is an indication that girls drop out at higher primary school level classes.
Similarly, it must be stated the quality of facilities available to pupils and staff at
these schools varied, reflecting the usual location, school sector and even
socioeconomic level of the school neighbourhood. For example, there are 2,510 rural
primary schools while only 302 urban primary schools. On the contrary, out of the
803 private pre-primary and primary schools, 321 or less than half are in rural areas.
The rural public JS schools are 247 against urban 74 urban schools. Similarly, public
SS schools are mostly located in the rural areas with 181 schools against 65 located
in the urban areas. Overall there are only 19% of the total number of schools in
Katsina state are private schools in the 2019/2020 session lower than 24% of the
total number of schools owned by private education providers in the 2014/2015
session. This reduction in the number of privately owned schools becomes lower due
to either the state government having increased the number of public or the owners
of private schools have closed their schools. Combining the total number of schools
at each school level, the table below indicates that total rural JS schools are 114
while those in the urban areas are 271 while for SS schools, the total is 235 for rural
and 188 for urban.

2019/2020 2018/2019

Total No. of Pub Pri-Pry & Pry

Schools 2813 1,716
Pre-Pri Rural 1737

Pre-Pri Urban 270

Primary Rural 2510 2,771

Primary Urban 302

Total Junior Secondary Schools 321 251

JSS Rural 247

JSS Urban 74

Total Senior Secondary Schools 246 245

SSS Rural 181

SSS Urban 65

Total Technical and Vocational 6

Schools 7

FGC, Voc. & Tech. Rural 1

FGC, Voc. & Tech. Urban 6

Total Private Schools 711

PrePri Schools Rural 159

Pre-Pry Schools Urban 368

Pry Schools Rural 162

 Pry Schools Urban 364

JSS Rural 114

JSS Urban 197

SSS Rural 53

SSS Urban 117

Total Rural Pre-Primary Schools 1896

Total Urban Pre-Primary Schools 638

Total Primary Schools Rural 2672

Total Urban Primary Schools 666

Total Rural JSS 114

Total Urban JSS 271

Total Rural SSS 235

Total Urban SSS 188

Table 3: Number of Schools in Katsina State over two Sessions

One interesting aspect of the school enrolment in Katsina state is gender parity
(GPI). GPI is the ratio of females to males at a given time. It is a measure of
progress towards gender parity in education participation and learning opportunities
available for girls (Gadoth & Heymann, 2020). The figure below shows girls versus
boys overall enrolment for the three zones during the 2019/2020 session. The total
enrolment for girls is equal to that of boys for the Daura and Funtua zones while it is
slightly higher for the Katsina zone.
Figure 1: Enrolment by Gender and Zone in Public Primary Schools 2019/2020

Looking more closely at the gender parity index for primary schools enrolment by
level, table two above and table four below indicate that there were more girls in
class two and that the number of girls continue to drop each year until primary six
where the girls are only 86% of the total enrolment falling from110% in primary two.

  Data      

Sum of Sum of Sum of Sum of

Class Level Boys Girls Total GPI

Primary 1 208664 219716 428380 1.05

Primary 2 194474 214516 408990 1.1

Primary 3 179112 178183 357295 0.99

Primary 4 164623 150890 315513 0.92

 Primary 5 148214 131629 279843 0.89

Primary 6 138144 119190 257334 0.86

Grand
Total 1033231 1014124 2047355 5.81

Table 4: Primary School Enrollment by Gender and School Level 2019/2020 Session

Furthermore, the total number of students enrolled in primary one was almost double
the number of students at primary six during the session. It can also be seen from
the figure below that students' wastages or dropping out between class levels is
distinctive at higher classes than they were in the lower classes.

Table five below gives a clearer picture of students drop-out at primary school levels.
For example, a total of 440,090 students finished primary class one during the
2018/2019 session but 408,990 students were enrolled in class two during the
2019/2020 session. This figure indicates that about 5% of the students enrolled in
2018/2019 who were supposed to be in class two the following academic session,
did not continue. These number of students were either transferred out of the state
or dropped out due to other circumstances such as death. Out of the over 31,000
students who did not transit to primary two during the 2019/2020 session, 19,323
were girls while 11,777 were boys. Similarly, out of 266,924 students (143,772 boys
 and 123,152 girls) who completed primary five class level during the 2018/2019
school session, only 257,334 of them transited to primary class six during the
2019/2020 session. Again, about 4,000 girls dropped out while over 5,600 boys did
not proceed to class six during 2019/2020. These simple figures indicate that the
rate of school drop-out equally affects boys as much as it affects girls. We shall take
a further look at this point later.

    2019/2020       2018/2019  

Class Level Boys Girls Total GPI Boys Girls Total

Primary 1 208,664 219,716 428,380 1.05 206,251 233,839 440,090

Primary 2 194,474 214,516 408,990 1.1 188,961 186,943 375,904

Primary 3 179,112 178,183 357,295 0.99 174,782 159,191 333,973

Primary 4 164,623 150,890 315,513 0.92 156,233 138,672 294,905

Primary 5 148,214 131,629 279,843 0.89 143,772 123,152 266,924

Primary 6 138,144 119,190 257,334 0.86 134,699 116,973 251,672

Total 1,033,231 1,014,124 2,047,355 0.98 1,004,698 958,770 1,963,468

Table 5: Primary School Enrolment by Gender and Class Level for two Sessions;
2018/2019 and 2019/2020