‘Private schools need to be checkmated in Kano’

As chairman, Kano State Taskforce on Private Schools, how do you see the operations of private and public schools in Kano? Well, the society that has no benchmark in monitoring education is likely to be a moribund society and that society is technically heading to collapse. Anywhere in the world education is expansive and it […]

As chairman, Kano State Taskforce on Private Schools, how do you see the operations of private and public schools in Kano?
Well, the society that has no benchmark in monitoring education is likely to be a moribund society and that society is technically heading to collapse.
Anywhere in the world education is expansive and it is something that requires collective contributions from people in both private and public sector for the attainment of the standards, in terms of facilities, laboratories, libraries, environment, and teaching staffs.  
Education has two dimensions; either we look at it as public services or private participations. In America, Asia or in the third world or developing nations like Nigeria, education requires leadership, with commitment and will, to sum up educational programs that will improve the sector for the better.
Why did the government set up the Taskforce?
First, the taskforce came on board when the government realized that there was need to checkmate the excesses of some private schools existing in Kano because some are operating without government approval while some operate with expired approval.
When we came on board in 2011, the immediate past administration surrendered a list of about 1023 private schools. However, in the course of our inspections, we discovered that there were over 3000 to 4000 private schools operating in Kano state. Not long ago, the taskforce distributed forms, soliciting for data for planning purposes and it is obvious that when you are executing a program like this, some of the guilty ones will be elusive for the mere fact that they have not registered. This is detrimental not only to the government but to the society because time will come when the schools that are registered will mature either for Common Entrance, Junior Examinations (JSS) or Senior Secondary School examination.
We have so far identified about 1700 unregistered private schools. Majority of such schools do not have the facilities and qualified teachers among other inefficiencies. They are also not paying 10% contribution which the law says they should pay; no school in Kano state has ever paid that 10% because we have been compassionate in collection of tax.
For example if a school is collecting a package of N30, 000 as its school fees, obviously it would be difficult to say that government should collect the 10% of that N30, 000. The law requires us to only collect 10% of the tuition fee and in some instances out of that N30,000, the school will tell you their tuition fee is just N5,000 so what the law says you should collect is 10% of that N5,000 and no school in Kano has ever been charged that 10%.
In most cases, they pay below 5% of that N5, 000, so the schools are making a lot of money but unfortunately they are not willing to cooperate and respect the law. They do not want to employ teachers, they do not want to pay the teachers good salaries and they do not want to provide good facilities rather they prefer to operate in mushroom environments. So there are so many problems associated with operating private schools in Kano state.
Do you believe that there were some schools we discovered operating Nursery, Primary, Junior and Senior Secondary Schools in only three rooms. This is unfortunate and is something that we will not condone. From our own observations, majority of private schools in the state are only in this business because they want to exploit the society in terms of increment of school fees, imposition of purchase of books that are not even relevant to the curriculum, by collection of development levy. Some schools install air-conditioners and compel parents to pay for the service. This is a negative way of doing business. We want to make sure that when the parents pay school fees; their children have the right to get quality and standard education.
 What is the committee doing about what is known as ‘miracle centres’ where students pay to pass WAEC, NECO and other external examinations?
We are attending to that problem; currently we have staged a total war against such centres in the state. In the past, these miracle centres exploit students by collecting between N60, 000 and N80, 000 per student for examinations.
 We are collaboration with examination bodies, Teachers Regulatory Council, PTA and other stakeholders including the association of private schools owners to address the situation. We are currently planning on a benchmark to deal with any school that continues to encourage the activities of miracle centres and that is why this time around we are not clearing schools that have no requirements but yet ask for WAEC or NECO slots. Honestly, it is a very difficult exercise but we are equal to the challenges.
 We have discovered a lot of such centres and if you want to have the exact number of such centres, you can go to NECO and WAEC offices, they have the data. We only close schools when they violate our rules. We only operate within the mandate given to the taskforce; either for the schools’ failure to create the enabling environment for learning or by refusing to comply with the routing guidelines in terms of increment of school fees, intimidating parents to buy uniforms and so on and so forth. Ours is to create the benchmark for standardizations.
 However, I have gathered from NECO office that they have sanctioned about four or five private schools. I assure you that I will collaborate with NECO, WAEC and other related exams to deal with any school found engaging in examination malpractice because we cannot allow people to pass examinations through dubious ways.
It is not even within our mandate to shut down a school based on examination malpractices. We are only assisting the statutory agencies wherever they identify ‘miracle centres’ by denying them the right to have slots to write the examinations. This is our rule; if a school is established as a miracle centre WAEC or NECO cannot stop them from writing the exams but from our end, we will not clear them and therefore NECO and WAEC will not give them exam slots.
  There is outcry over multiple taxations by both state and local governments. What is your committee doing about this?
You know there are three tiers of government and each has its own constitutional responsibility when it comes to tax issues. We as taskforce realized that there was much duplication in terms of revenue collections so we reported the issue to the government and very soon government will do something about it.  
 What are your major challenges?
 Taking a decision to close down schools is the most challenging task in this operation. The inabilities of school owners who are quacks, who do not even want to respect the law, are not my concern because very soon we will shut them down. However, my major problem each day I shut down a school is that I will be disturbed.  Closing down a school makes both the owner as well as the teachers unemployed, while the students will also be sent out of school.  So far, we have closed down 70 private schools and if not for our concern for teachers, students and even the owners, we would have shut down over 1000 schools in Kano state.