The historical development of formal education in this state has generally been a long one. It could be traced back to the 10th to 12th century when the renowned Islamic scholar and preacher Muhammad Al Maghili and others helped in the establishment of Islamic laws and Islamic schools in Kano State. With the advent of the 18th century missionaries and colonialist came first contact of Nigerians to western education. They established Missionary Schools and by early 19th century, western education began to become rooted in the south. The Northern part of the country came into contact with Western/Primary education at later age. Kano Province had its first western school establishment in 1909 by one of the colonialists’ administrators, Hans Vischer (Dan-Hausa). The school meant for the training of local teachers. In the same year, a boarding school was opened in Kano for the sons of chiefs from the Northern States. The whole idea was to get the local community accept the new education systems, which the northerners had always been suspicious of.

The pupil’s enrolment in 1909 was only 209 and the pupils were drawn from several towns in the Northern provinces, mainly Ilorin and Sokoto. Even though schools were establishment in more areas of the North like Zaria province, the development of western education in Kano Province remained very slow compared to what was obtained in some others states of the federation.

In Kano, the negative attitude of parents towards western education, among others, has tremendously, contributed towards the problems. The oil boom era helped to provide funds for education expansion but without any meaningful corresponding community participation. As a result of the introduction to UPE without proper planning and adequate and effective monitoring and supervision most of the UPE classrooms were poorly constructed, teachers were haphazardly trained recruited into the teaching and the peak of the deterioration of the whole affair even primary seven pupils were recruited to teach in schools as auxiliary teachers.

By late 1970s, the funds from the oil began to dwindle, as such the funds for the sustenance of the UPE scheme were no longer flowing as regularly as before. The era of oil boom was over, and things began to crumble very fast. Teachers’ salaries were irregular, infrastructures, were not taken care of, instructional materials became virtually the responsibilities of the parents who had no interest in the western education and are poverty stricken. Primary education system began to collapse, everywhere dilapidated classrooms blocks were the show of primary schools. It was at the peak of this anarchy in our primary education delivery that the first primary schools management board in the state was established in 1986.