Over 600,000 primary school pupils sit on the bare floor to study in Kaduna State.

The State Education, Science and Technology commissioner, Dr. Shehu Usman Adamu who disclosed this yesterday, said the state government has undertaken plans to overcome the legacy of 16 years of neglect that the educational sector has suffered.

He added that about 80% of the 4200 public Primary Schools in the state are dilapidated.

According to him, “more than half of their 1.106m pupils sit on the bare floor. The teaching force, which is understaffed, consists of over 40% non-qualified teachers. The 349 public secondary schools are not in a better condition.”

He said, the state government has taken emergency to ensure Rapid delivery of reforms in the Educational System within six weeks.

He said, government is aware that the free basic education programme, which commenced as schools resumed in September 2015, led to the high influx of new pupils in public schools.

To address the infrastructure problems at the primary schools, the commissioner said, the state government has concluded plans to supply primary schools with over 400,000 units of furniture while the Junior Secondary and the Senior Secondary schools also require about 370,000 units of furniture.

On recruitment of Teachers in Core Subjects, he said the state has has concluded arrangement to employ about 2,226 teachers in English and the Sciences.

He added that a complete renovation profile of all schools in the state will be completed within the next six weeks.

According to him “Contracts for repairs and improvements of schools will be awarded within the emergency period. Already school repairs are on-going in some selected secondary schools with critical needs such as those with cases of fire and rainstorm damage. Such repairs will be completed within the six- week period.”