School proprietors should be involved in policies formulation – NAPPS Chairman

One would assume that NAPPS will be in constant conflict with the state task force on private schools. How would you describe your relationship with the taskforce committee?Even though we disagree in some areas with the committee, I can state here that the relationship has been very cordial and passionate, and also the leadership of […]

One would assume that NAPPS will be in constant conflict with the state task force on private schools. How would you describe your relationship with the taskforce committee?
Even though we disagree in some areas with the committee, I can state here that the relationship has been very cordial and passionate, and also the leadership of the committee is such that its interest and dedication to the development of education in the state is very clear to all. We share common interests and purposes and that has made us work towards same direction in the educational sector.
The committee was inaugurated to sanitize private schools operations and I need not mention that they have done quite a lot in that regard. The committee has come up with ideas and programmes that really define who we are and what our responsibilities ought to be. The committee also came up with the idea of school categorizing and a systematic approach that unified operational standard in terms of examination fees, school fees and so on. But more importantly the committee had succeeded in reawakening parents on their responsibilities to their wards’ education.
However, as humans, there is every tendency that we do have places where we feel something has to be done and areas where we feel some things should not be done.

What are the areas that you felt you disagree with the committee?
You see, most of these things that I have mentioned to you are positive steps taken by the committee to see that the private education sector in Kano State yields the desired result. However, as important as those steps are, we were not consulted or involved during the decision making meetings. I believe if you are to protect a certain issue, stakeholders in that issue ought to be part of policies that have to do with the issue.
Furthermore, when the taskforce committee wanted to scrap the buying of school uniforms from schools, it should have investigated on why the schools insist that parents should buy from schools. Now, if you go to most
schools you will find pupils dressed in different shades of colours simply because each parent thinks what he bought for his child is the right colour. The same goes on the issue of buying text books from the market. What we were doing initially was to ensure that pupils use genuine textbooks not pirated ones. Now, you will find pupils using books with some pages missing and these have not been helping matters. These are things that we want the government to look into and as proprietors we are willing and ready to do everything possible to ensure the smooth operation of the whole system.
We are calling to the committee to look into the issues of textbooks and school uniforms and revisit its decision on them.

But some people are of the view that some of these charges are not necessary and therefore seen as a form of exploitation. What do you have to say on that?
Now, let me give you an example. West African Examination Council (WAEC) charges N2, 000 per individual certificate and the taskforce is asking us to charge students N500 on the same certificate, which basically leaves us at the losing end and don’t forget we are private organizations. Do you also see that as a form of exploitation? The taskforce should consider that and revisit these issues in a more understandable manner beneficial to both parties.

How are you finding the new guidelines by the committee on school fees increment?
Indeed, the new approach to increase in school fees is a welcome development and a positive one, however; we are not saying the approach to increase in school fees is wrong, what we are saying here is that there are some criteria specifically spelt out that are very rigid.
This rigid part of the criteria is virtually making it almost difficult for any proprietor to increase school fees no matter what the situation may turn out to be. Similarly, there are instances that will warrant or necessitate the proprietor of a school to increase the school fees of his school and in a situation where it is required of you to have the consent of PTA, it is as good as saying “Allow me take from your pocket,” do you think it is possible? We need to look at these things and address them properly.
However, we are aware that the chairman had made some pledges and we are also confident that he is going to redeem those pledges but we want more; we want to establish a kind of reciprocal approach to the whole issue.

It was reported that proprietors are operating dual curriculum; does that affect the conduct of the school activities?
You see, there are two curriculums in operation; that of the federal government and then that of the state. Though they are interwoven we do not have much stress attached to it.

How would you rate the conduct of public schools?
There are a lot of improvements in Kano State’s public schools though I do not know about other states. The present Kano State government has done a lot in reviving the public schools. The state government has invested heavily in education and that is what we have been agitating for in the educational sector.
The private sector also needs to do more in terms of teachers’ remunerations, operational standard and other aspects that will ensure the confidence of parents on the schools their wards attend.