Kano government bans some textbooks in schools

Kano government on Thursday, said it has banned the use of some textbooks across nursery, primary and secondary schools in the state, due to harmful and sexually explicit content.

This is contained in a statement issued by Malam Hamisu Ibrahim, the director of planning Research and Statistics office of the Special Adviser on Private and Voluntary Institutions in Kano.

“The Kano state government wishes to notify operators of both private and voluntary schools in the state that the under-listed books are prohibited for instruction use in our Nursery, Primary and Secondary Schools due to observed inclusion of inappropriate and sexually explicit content that is harmful to the morale of young students” the government said.

The Muslim Rights Concern(MIRIC) commended the State Government for decision.

MURIC Chairman in Kano, Mr Hassan Indabawa, in a statement said the move by the government to remove some lewd and pernicious teaching materials from the curriculum of basic schools was commendable.

He said the decision of the Kano government, under the leadership of Gov. Abba Yusuf came at the right time.

“Therefore, all parents, educationists, learners and advocates must embrace and support the initiative so as to tame the alarming rise of immorality amongst the youths in the state,” he said.

Indabawa further said that MIRIC was one of the front line advocates for the removal of all obscene teaching aids from the nation’s educational system.

“MURIC rejoice and commend the government of Kano for doing the needful by prohibiting the use of some selected teaching materials found to contain sexually explicit contents.

“Nigerians are aware that in the last twenty years, classical English literature books and novels such as Macbeth, Merchant of Venice, Things Fall Apart among others, have been removed from our school curricula.

“They have been replaced with sex-related local english literature and other science books containing lewd and pernicious matters to give the unsuspecting young school pupils the wrong impression that self-control is unnecessary.

“As we may equally be aware, one of the negative consequences of this is the sexualisation of primary and secondary school pupils,” he said.

He added that the prohibition of the use of these offensive text books must be backed by appropriate legislation to provide legal framework for sanctioning any erring school authority for effective implementation of the government’s directive.

“The Office of the Special Advisor on Private and Voluntary Institutions and Kano Educational Resource Department (KERD) must be well-equipped to ensure strict compliance.

“We also call on other state governments to emulate Kano State by reviewing and removing all lewd and pernicious teaching materials from their various basic education curriculum,” he said.