Further and Higher Education in Kano

Professor Abdalla Uba Adamu ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )

Response to further and higher education

For a state that is acclaimed as educationally disadvantaged, Kano has a well developed system of further and higher education. There are two categories of further education in the State. The first caters for students who have finished their post-primary schools, but cannot, for one reason or other, proceed directly to the university. Under this scheme, students study for a two year program that prepares them for eventual university admission, or alternatively, study for a series of diploma programs that enable them to get jobs immediately after finishing such course.

The second form of higher education in Kano State caters for the more able students, under the banner of Kano Polytechnic and associated institutions, in a collegiate system. Each of the colleges in the system can also provide remedial training program for academically challenged students.

The response to higher education in the recent years in Kano has been overwhelming — threatening to choke the existing facilities.

This discussion does not consider federally owned higher institutions (of which there are three in Kano: Bayero University, Federal College of Education Kano, and Federal College of Education (Technical), Bichi). This is because the budget flow patterns for these three institutions is directly controlled by the Federal Government.

Further Education

College of Arts, Science and Remedial Studies

Further education is provided by the College of Arts, Science and Remedial Studies. This offers a two-year program that prepares students for admission into either a collegiate system of higher education in the State, or any of the three federally-controlled higher institutions.

The Kano State College of Arts, Science and Remedial Studies was the first Kano State Government owned tertiary institution,  having been established in 1972 but came into being in 1973 as College of Advanced Studies, Kano. At the inception of the College, it was conceived to be the nucleus of the State University. Presently the College houses the Planning Unit of proposed Kano State University. The founding of the college occurred during the military governorship of Late Police Commissioner Alhaji Audu Bako.

In 1978 however, the College was renamed School of Preliminary Studies (SPS) and merged with the other tertiary institutions in the state to form Kano State Institute for Higher Education. The institute was split into three parastatals in 1987. The SPS  was merged with the Centre for Continuing Education to form College of Arts, Science and Remedial Studies, through Edict No. 11 of the same year.

In accordance with the provision of the Edict the College prepares students for Interim Joint Matriculation Board Examination (IJMBE) of Ahmadu Bello University,  Zaria. This is an Advanced Level course commencing in October through August each year. Students of this program must be full‑time residential students because IJMBE is a Continuous Assessment based examination. They are also expected to have tuition in three A/Level subjects. Candidates who have not passed English and/or Mathematics in the SSCE/TC 1I are registered for Basic English and/or Basic Mathematics as the case may be. These Basic subjects are also open to former IJMB students in the Universities who are still deficient in all or one of them. Successful graduates of the program are admitted into 200 Level (sophomore) of Nigerian Universities

Other programs of the College include:

·        Diploma in Mathematics Education (DME) affiliated to ABU, Zaria

·        Diploma in Physics Education (DPE) affiliated to ABU, Zaria

·        Diploma in English Education (DEE) affiliated to Bayero University, Kano

·        Diploma in Integrated Science Education affiliated to University of Nigeria, Nsukka

·        Remedial Courses in SSCE and TC II (Referred ) Certificate Examinations­

Even though the College, like all its counterparts offering the IJMB Program nation‑wide, has not been catered for in the current National Policy on Education, yet it has been providing the necessary Advanced Level courses to indigenes of Kano and Jigawa States for Direct Entry admissions into Nigerian Universities. Incidentally, it is also open to other Nigerians as well as foreigners (most of whom tended to be from the large Asian community resident in Kano).

Structure and spread of further and higher education

Kano State operates a collegiate system of higher education, where about six colleges are centrally controlled by a Provost at a headquarters in Kano. The colleges in the system are as follows:

School of  Technology

The creation of Kano State from the then Northern Region in Nigeria brought with it a massive need for trained personnel to man various establishments, both in the private and in the public sectors of the economy that evolved. It was in the wake of this need that the School of Technology was established in September, 1976 with three diploma and two certificate courses,

From this modest beginning with only 5 full time lecturers and a student population of 100, the school, with its temporary site situated along Matan Fada/Abdullahi Bayero Road in Kano, has grown tremendously over the years, keeping pace with the economic and technological development of Kano State, and in response to the great demand for trained manpower. It offers Pre-ND, ND and HND programs in Engineering, Architecture, Printing Technology, Computer Studies, and related disciplines.

School of Management Studies

The origin of the School of Management studies goes back to 1970 when, three years after the creation of States a Staff Training Centre was established with the expressed purpose of training middle level manpower for the state.

The Centre was then placed under the umbrella of the State Ministry of Establishment and services Matters. Six years later, in 1976, the Staff Training Centre was upgraded to the status of a Staff Development Center. The acceptance of the Aminu Kano report on the then College of Advanced Studies which culminated in the setting up of the Kano State Polytechnic in 1977 resulted in the incorporation of the Staff Development Centre as a unit of the newly established Polytechnic. This development was instrumental on the change of name of the School from Staff Development Center to its present one i.e. School of Management Studies.

The school runs programs in Business Studies, Financial Studies, Secretarial Studies and Catering and Hotel Management at Pre‑ND, ND and HND levels on both full‑time and part time basis.

Audu Bako School of Agriculture

Audu Bako School of Agriculture was established in October1978 with the objective of training middle manpower in the field of Agriculture. The School started with only one department offering Diploma in General Agriculture and has since increased to three, namely: Department of General Agriculture, Forestry and Animal Health & Husbandry.

The initial students enrollment was forty and most of them were sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Local Government, the State Scholarship Board and Hadejia‑Jama'are River Basin Development Authority. The school offers Pre‑ND, ND and HND levels.

School of  Social and Rural Development

The School of Social and Rural Development was started in 1976 as a Cooperative Training Center, under the then Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperative for the purpose of training middle level personnel for the State, Local Government and Cooperatives societies, as well as educating non members and the public at large on the role and activities of cooperatives to the community. The school offers Pre‑ND, ND and HND levels on both full‑time and part time basis.

Aminu School of Islamic Legal Studies

Following the realization that the Judiciary in all the Northern States lacked adequate and qualified personnel in the area courts, the idea of establishing a School of Legal studies was conceived to train the needed personnel. Thus the School of Islamic Legal Studies was established in 1976, by the then Military Administration. The School started with 20 students at its temporary site at the School for Arabic Studies. The School offers courses leading to the award of Diploma in Shari’ah, Civil Law, Arabic, Hausa and Islamic Studies.

The School is affiliated with Bayero University Kano, and has gained recognition from some Nigerian Universities and many foreign Universities particularly those in the Arab world.

Kano State College of Education

The College of Education was established by the Ministry of Education in October, 1981, with initial intake of over 600 students for both N.C.E. (Nigerian Certificate of Education) and remedial courses following the recommendation of the eleven-man high powered committee set up by the Government to study and recommend possible means of meeting the staffing needs in our post primary Institutions.

The need to establish another advanced Teachers college in Kano arose from the events of great expansion of Education in the state. More post-primary Institutions had been opened over the recent years and the existing ones expanded in order to absorb the ever increasing number of Primary School Leavers. These developments had made it necessary for the State Government to employ more teachers in order to promote a solid post-primary education system. With the establishment of this Institute, more N.C.E. teachers  were trained, and this has succeeded in producing a lot of teachers for primary and post-primary schools in the State.

Kano State College of Education offers a wide range of courses with fourteen well established departments ranging from liberal arts, social sciences, and sciences. Successful graduates of the NCE program are eligible for direction admission into 200 Level of any Nigerian university.

Support Services in Higher Education

These are included in this pilot survey to help delineate and fine-tune the specific areas of the study the larger survey will cover. They fall in gray areas of funding in education. For instance, the Agency for Mass Education tended to focus attention on adult learners. A decision therefore has to be made as to whether its funding processes will fit in with the current exercise. This is more so as getting data on the beneficiaries can be difficult due to the ephemeral nature of their studies.  The Kano State Scholarships Board, on the other hand, provides the logical conclusions to the studies the students do. Thus from primary (through SPEB), to secondary (through the MOE) or Science College (through the STB), to either College of Arts and Science, then on to either the College of Education or the Polytechnic, the Scholarships Board provides the funding at the higher stages.  It is for this reason that I limited data presentation to only the Kano State Scholarships Board.

Kano State Scholarship Board

The Kano State Scholarship Board was established in 1968 following the creation of States in the country. It is charged with the responsibility of awarding scholarships to deserving indigenes of the State. The board is no doubt one of the State government's most important parastatal and it's impact on the educational development of the State is immense.

During the year 1984 the scholarship board increased its award by about 15%. There was a total of 8,104 students on the State Scholarship in various Institutions of Higher Learning in and outside the Country. This is no mean achievement when the financial crisis facing the State in particular and the Country in general is taken into account.

Scholarship awards have been based on merit and need. This is a more rational approach in scholarship awards. More stringent measures have been taken to check abuses. A committee has conducted a survey and has identified the most priority areas of the State and the report of the committee is intended to guide the Board in subsequent scholarship awards.

There seemed to be a sharp decrease in the amount allocated for scholarships particularly in 1999. A closer interaction with the officials of the Kano State Scholarships Board reveals that the bulk of the funding for 1999 was on a single overseas student who was sponsored to study genetic engineering at the University of Dundee in Scotland. By then, the Kano State government has started fine-tuning its funding priorities to focus mainly on science and technology related disciplines.