The Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso and his Kwara State counterpart, Abdulfatah Ahmed, have canvassed the need for quality education in the nation’s school at the basic level.

Kwankwaso, during his visit to Ilorin, the Kwara State capital on Wednesday, stated that in realisation of the strategic role of education in national development, his administration had invested in the development of affordable, accessible and quality education.

According to him, education is free at all levels in Kano State.

He said the state government had transformed infrastructure and human capital as well banished the almajirisystem of education in the state.

Ahmed, during the state’s public enlightenment programme tagged, ‘The Governor Explains,’ said the government was committed to educational development in Kwara State.

He stated that there should be no misunderstanding over the state government’s stand on grant-aided schools.

According to him, there are three categories of ownership and management of schools in the state. He said there were privately owned schools; privately owned institutions that are government grant-aided and government owned schools.

The governor said the state government was willing to fully hand over grant-aided schools to their owners who applied for full ownership, as that would reduce financial burden on the government as, according to him, local government councils are finding it difficult to pay salaries and other financial commitments as a result of dwindling revenue from federal allocation. He, however, said that due process must be followed.

He also stated that government would take over those schools whose owners applied to government to fully take over.

“For the privately owned schools that are running on their own, we do not have much business with them. But grant-aided schools receive money from government from time to time. We are using public funds to run private schools. They are being guided under the Kwara Education Law.

“When they agree with us that they do not want grant-aiding again and that they want government to hands off from the schools and that they want to run their schools privately, we will gladly agree with that because they will be reducing the burden of the government and they are helping government to drive the education sector.

“But for those schools that want government to continue to support them, government will take over those schools and have a common platform for all schools in Kwara being administered by the same laws, regulations and guidelines under Government owned schools.