Proprietors support closure of illegal schools

It would be recalled that penultimate Tuesday, the Commissioner of Education, Mohammed Usman announced that 642 private schools are operating illegally in Kaduna State adding that 457 of them have been closed down and barred from operating while the remaining 185 are still undergoing verification.According to him, 331 out of the 457 schools closed down […]

It would be recalled that penultimate Tuesday, the Commissioner of Education, Mohammed Usman announced that 642 private schools are operating illegally in Kaduna State adding that 457 of them have been closed down and barred from operating while the remaining 185 are still undergoing verification.
According to him, 331 out of the 457 schools closed down in the first phase of the exercise are located within Kaduna zone, 83 from Zaria and environs while 43 are within Kafanchan zone.
“The law states that for you to operate a private school, you are required to register with the Private Schools Board so that government can be aware of the school’s existence, monitor its activities as well as ensure that it is operating within the confines of the law,” he said.
In an interview with Daily Trust, the state president of NAPPS, Dr. Vincent Oginni, affirmed that for a school to be operational, it must register with the Private Schools Board or the Ministry of Education.
While commending the state government on the action taken against illegal schools, he advised proprietors of the affected schools to go and register their schools.
Some of the proprietors interviewed complained of the high cost of registering schools, but Dr. Vincent said that whoever cannot afford to register a school does not deserve to run one.
“I don’t think the cost is too high. If it is too high for them, it means they should close the schools,” he said.
Commenting on the issue of high school fees charged by private schools, he stated that fees are charged according to standard and provision, noting that no school is charging exorbitant fees because operating a school is capital intensive and that some proprietors access bank loans to run their schools.
However, the Commissioner of Education Mohammed Usman told our reporter that some of the school proprietors have responded positively by contacting the Private Schools Board to register.
“Many of them have accepted the fact that the schools were not registered citing one reason or the other. The response has been very good and for about one week now, between 70 to 90 schools have registered, which shows that what government is doing is good and I believe more are still coming,” Usman said.
He explained that government did not want to disrupt the academic school calendar of the schools, which was why they decided to carry out the exercise during the long vacation so as to allow the schools that are really qualified to go through the registration processes.
“Once they meet up with these requirements, we will open them and allow them to continue operations but for schools that are operating in garage, shops and on fields among others, we will not allow them to operate,” he said.
On the 185 schools that are yet to be closed, the commissioner said checks are still going on so that decision can be taken on the next line of action.
“We want to be very careful and make sure we go through our records at the headquarters and at the zones to ensure that this exercise does not affect schools that have registered.”
Responding to allegations of the high cost of registering schools, he said cost is not a major hindrance adding that the fee charged for registering a school in Kaduna is cheaper than what neighbouring states like Kano and Benue charge.
“For the nursery and primary school, the cost of registration is N75,000 and N100,000 for secondary school. In Benue State, they charge about N400,000 to register a school, in Kano State, it’s about the same amount too but in Kaduna, people are complaining. So the issue of cost is not what is preventing the schools from registering,” he stressed.