ABOUT THE MINISTRY
The Kano State Ministry of Education
The Ministry is the government of Kano State for everything to do with schooling: policy, budget, approval, inspection, examinations and certification, across roughly 4,800 schools, 3.4 million pupils and 78,000 teachers in all 44 local government areas.
Who we are
The Kano State Ministry of Education (KSMOE) is the ministry of the Kano State Government responsible for education from the nursery year to the end of senior secondary school, and for adult and non-formal learning alongside it. It is established under the Kano State Education Law, Cap. 47, and sits at Ministry of Education, Audu Bako Secretariat, Kano, Kano State, Nigeria. The Honourable Commissioner for Education answers for the sector in the State Executive Council; the Permanent Secretary is the accounting officer and the head of the professional service.
The Ministry does not manage schools directly. It sets policy, prepares and defends the sector budget, approves and licenses schools, inspects them, runs the State examinations, registers and deploys teachers, and takes the annual school census. The schools themselves belong to one of eight parastatal boards and agencies, each with its own executive head, its own estate and its own line of accountability to the Commissioner. That arrangement is what everyone in the sector calls the 8 + 1.
Kano is the largest education system in Nigeria by enrolment, and it is unusual in another way: alongside the public primary and secondary schools sit some 900 Tsangaya and Islamiyyah schools with close to half a million learners, and a further 300 private, community and mission schools. All of them are counted in the census, all of them are inspected, and all of them appear in the register published on this site.
The sector at a glance, 2025/2026
4,800
Schools
Public, private, Tsangaya and Islamiyyah
3.4m
Learners enrolled
Pre-primary to senior secondary
78,000
Teachers
Across the eight boards
44
Local government areas
An education authority in each
₦168.4bn
Education budget
27.4 per cent of the State budget
82.4%
Transition to SS 1
JSS 3 leavers placed in a senior school
0.90
Gender parity index
Girls to boys, all levels
44:1
Pupil–teacher ratio
State average, basic education
What the Ministry does, week in and week out
Most of the Ministry's work is unglamorous and continuous. Money is released to the boards on a schedule; inspectors visit schools and write reports that have consequences; approvals are granted, renewed and occasionally revoked; teachers are registered, posted and trained; question papers are printed under guard and results are released on a published date.
The Ministry is also the place a citizen comes when the system has not worked. A pupil refused admission, a certificate not issued, a levy charged where none is lawful, a school operating without approval, a teacher absent from a classroom for a term: each of these has an office, a form and a service standard attached to it.
- Sector policy, the education budget and the release of funds to the eight boards
- Approval and licensing of every school that opens in Kano State
- Quality assurance: whole-school evaluation, subject inspection and improvement notices
- The Common Entrance, the Basic Education Certificate Examination and the Qualifying Examination
- Teacher registration, deployment and professional development
- The Annual School Census and every education statistic the State publishes
The lifecycle the Ministry manages
Seven stages, each with an owner, a record and a document at the end of it. The whole system is built around them.
Census
Every school in the State is enumerated once a year, in the sixth week of the first term: enrolment by class and sex, teachers by qualification, classrooms, water, toilets and furniture. Nothing is budgeted for that has not first been counted.
Register
A school exists in law once it is approved and entered in the register with a code of the form KN/LGA/CATEGORY/NNNN. Approval is granted by the Ministry on the recommendation of the board that will manage the school, and it can be withdrawn.
Enrol
Admission into Primary 1 is by age and catchment; into JSS 1 by the Common Entrance; into SS 1 by the Qualifying Examination and the BECE. Every admitted learner is given a student number that follows them to the end of senior secondary.
Staff
Teachers are registered with the national council, posted by their board to a named school, and counted against that school's establishment. A posting that leaves a school below its establishment is a matter the zonal office must answer for.
Teach
Schools work to the national curriculum as adapted for Kano, in three terms across roughly 41 teaching weeks, with the scheme of work, continuous assessment records and the register of attendance open to any inspector who calls.
Assess
Continuous assessment carries 40 per cent and the terminal examination 60 per cent. External examinations are graded on the WAEC bands, A1 at 75 marks and above down to F9 below 40.
Certify
The Ministry issues the Basic Education Certificate and the Qualifying Examination result; WAEC and NECO issue the senior school certificates; the boards issue trade, literacy and Qur'anic studies certificates. A certificate once issued can be verified on request.
Where to go from here
The six parts of this site that answer most of what people come here to ask.
The eight boards
The 8 + 1
Every school and learning centre in the State belongs to exactly one board. Find the board that manages your school, what it is responsible for and how to reach it.
Learn moreSchools in Kano
4,800 schools
The public register: primary, junior and senior secondary, technical, Tsangaya and Islamiyyah, private and special needs schools, searchable by name, code or local government area.
Learn moreExaminations
Nine series
Entry windows, fees, centres, the grading bands and the results checker for the Common Entrance, the BECE, the Qualifying Examination, WASSCE and NECO.
Learn moreProgrammes
Seven flagships
Free basic education, girl-child education, Tsangaya integration, school feeding, adult literacy, teacher development and the STEM programme.
Learn moree-Services
Apply online
School approval, admission, transfer certificates, results, teacher licensing, scholarships, bursaries, textbook requests and inspection bookings.
Learn moreStatistics and reports
Open data
Enrolment by year and level, census returns, budget performance, the annual report and the machine-readable data sets behind them.
Learn moreBasic education in Kano State is free and compulsory
No public basic school — Primary 1 through JSS 3 — may charge tuition, a development levy, an examination fee or a uniform charge. Textbooks and exercise books are supplied by the State, and the entry fee for the Basic Education Certificate Examination is paid by the State for every candidate in a public school.
If money is demanded from you at a public basic school, report it to the local government education authority or through the feedback form on this site. Give the school name, the class and the amount asked for.
Questions people ask about the Ministry
Does the Ministry run the schools itself?
Which office should I go to first?
How do I confirm that a school is approved?
Where do the figures on this site come from?
Can I visit the Ministry without an appointment?
Start with the school, the board or the service
Most questions are answered by the school register or by the board that manages the school. If neither helps, write to us and we will route it to the office that owns the answer.