Governor Aminu Bello Masari has appealed to the United Nation’s Children Education Fund (UNICEF) to focus its education support programme on building capacity of teachers stressing that poor teacher capacity remained the bane of education in Nigeria.

Masari made the plea shortly after he recieved eight brand new Hilux vehicles donated to the state by UNICEF for implementation of Sanitation, Water and Hygiene In Nigeria (SHAWN) project.

He said the task of realising the SHAWN project which strive to improve access to water and sanitation including hygiene could best be achieved through functional education hence the need to focus on teacher training.

Masari said there was the need to commit more resources to teacher development stressing that once the capacities of teachers were developed, there would be remarkable improvement in quality of education.

He insisted that the SHAWN project was directly linked to education and regretted that long years of neglect has made the future look bleak for children.

Earlier in an address, the UNICEF Chief Field Officer in  Katsina, Padmavathi Yedla assured that the UNICEF was morally and technically committed to support Katsina state.

Yedla said UNICEF was donating the vehicles to help facilitate prompt implementation of the SHAWN project noting that the Commitment of Masari was responsible for success so far recorded in the implementation of the project.

It was gathered that the donation of the vehicles followed payment of three hundred and eighty million naira as counterpart fund by the Katsina state government.