Education
STAKEHOLDERS in the Education sector have advocated for strict measures to check the proliferation of private schools across the country with a view to enhancing standards in the sector.
Expressing their feelings in a survey conducted by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), key players in the sector noted that most of such schools are being established solely as “profit-making” ventures as against the age-long tradition of “social service”.
They observed that while in some states, standards for establishment of such schools such as provision of befitting sites, structures, toilet facilities, furniture, qualified teachers and recreational facilities are being strictly enforced, the situation is different in most states.
In the North-East, stakeholders decried the poor state of facilities in such private schools, just as the regulatory authorities insisted that they were doing their best to ensure compliance with stipulated guidelines.
Mr Bulama Abiso, Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) in Borno, said 75 percent of private schools in the state were substandard and lacked professional teaching staff.
He lamented that the rate at which private schools were springing up, adding that classrooms were often grossly inadequate, just as facilities such as toilets and game fields were either not available, or nothing to write home about.
“Government has laid conditions for the establishment of private schools but enforcement is not thorough,” he said.
Malam Abba-Yari Mahadi, Director of Schools, Borno Ministry of Education, said there were 112 government-owned Nursery and Primary, as well as 90 Senior Secondary Schools operating in the state, alongside135 private schools.
Mahadi however insisted that the private schools had been made to satisfy minimum requirements before being allowed to operate.
Alhaji Shuaibu Bulama, Director of Schools, Yobe Ministry of Education said there were 105 registered private Primary and Secondary schools in the state that had met standard requirements.
The director however said there were other schools that had not registered and are therefore regarded as’ illegal’, adding that measures would be taken against them soon.
In Gombe, Mr Sanusi Abdullahi, Chairman of National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools, (NAPPS) in the state, told NAN that no fewer than 450 private schools were registered in the state but “more than 50 per cent” of them did not meet stipulated requirements.”
“Some of the schools have no permanent structures; they are conducting lessons in rented apartments,” he revealed.
According to him, some of the schools only try to provide standard facilities during the sitting of West African Examination Council (WAEC) exams, to enable them meet the criteria to serve as ‘Examination Centres.”
On its part, the Adamawa Ministry of Education said it had commenced the registration of public and private schools in the state.
Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mr Mahmud Abubakar, said that the measure was to enable the authorities capture the number of both private and public schools with a view to mapping out strategies for supervision.
“Presently, government has no accurate data of private schools in the state,” Abubakar said.
However, the Taraba State Commissioner for Education, Mr Johannes Jigem said that establishment of private schools had contributed greatly in raising the standards of education in the state.
He said that private schools had been helping in addressing the challenge posed by the inadequacy of public Secondary Schools, adding that there were a total of 886 private Primary and Secondary schools across the state.
He said that all the schools were being closely monitored to ensure that they adhered to rules and regulations.
In Bauchi, Chairman of NAPPS in the state, Alhaji Garba Dankatagum, said there were over 1000 private Nursery, Primary, Secondary and tertiary schools in the state.
“Some of the schools have met government conditions for establishing such schools, while most of them are trying to measure up because they must satisfy 70 per cent of the conditions before they are registered,” Dankatagum said.
In states within the North-West, NAN checks reveals that there are no fewer than 5, 533 registered private schools, with the bulk of them located in Kano and Kaduna states which have 4, 013 private schools combined.
Officials in the states said the schools were being monitored constantly to ensure compliance to set standards.
In Kano State, Alhaji Yakubu Mailafiya, Director of Schools in the State Private and Voluntary Institutions Board, said that the board had registered a total of 2, 769 private schools.
According to him, seventy per cent of the registered private schools in the state are up to standard and that others are being monitored to ensure that they conform with required the standard.
The Director said that the board was liaising with stakeholders in the state to fish out all schools operating illegally or without necessary requirements.
Similarly the Jigawa Chairman of NAPPS, Mr Nura Musa, said that were over 300 private schools operating in the state, with 80 per cent of them satisfying the minimum standard set by the state government.
He however said that there were few private schools operating illegally, adding that the state government had been checking such schools through regular inspection and meetings with executives of NAPPS.
On his part, Kebbi Commissioner for Education, Alhaji Magawata Aliero, revealed that the state had only 285 private schools, just as he said government was spending resources to standardize public schools to encourage patronage.
Hajiya Fatima Zakari, Deputy Director in charge of private schools in the ministry, said there were no illegal private schools in the state because the guidelines for their establishment had made it impossible for anyone to establish a school illegally in the state.
The Kaduna State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Ja’afaru Sani said that no fewer than 2,244 private schools operated in the state on a ratio of four public schools to one private school.
Sani also told NAN that 374 private schools were operating illegally in the state, adding that even among the certified ones, some were not operating according to the recommended standard.
Mr Daniels Akpan, Executive Director, Centre for Learning and Educational Development Advocacy Africa, Zaria, noted that private schools increased access to education and provided job opportunities.
Akpan nonetheless blamed the poor state of public schools as being partly responsible for the proliferation of private schools, adding that the people responsible for proper management of public schools were indifferent because their children attended private schools.
In Sokoto, although officials of the state Ministry for Education declined comment on the issues of private schools, investigations revealed that the state has only 200 private schools.
Former Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education in the state, Dr Jabbi Kilgori, told NAN that some of the 200 private schools had been closed down or sanctioned over poor standard.
Alhaji Bishir Achida, proprietor of NAHDI International School, Sokoto, called on government to establish an agency that would check establishment of private schools and monitor their performance, noting that current guidelines were being flouted.
In Katsina State, the Chief Evaluator of Private Schools in the Ministry of Education, Alhaji Iro Saulawa, said they had 135 private Secondary Schools in their register.
The official said that the ministry had sanctioned 18 unregistered private schools and directed them to follow due process in obtaining registration.
On their part, stakeholders in the North Central geo-political zone decried the proliferation of private schools in states within the sub-region, lamenting that the development was already taking its toll on the education of children in the states.
One of them, Mr. Joshua Bwebe, the Chairman, Nigeria Union of Teachers, Jos North Local Government chapter, identified flagrant disregard for guidelines on the establishment of private schools as one of the reasons for the development.
In Benue, State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technoloy, Prof. Dennis Tyavyar, also said his ministry did not relent in monitoring to ensure that private school proprietors complied with standards, but regretted that in spite of this, illegal and substandard schools still existed in the state.
“In 2017, the government shut 2,424 illegal schools, out of which 451 came forward to regularize their establishment; at the moment, there are 3,301 private schools in the state, “he said.
In Nasarawa, State Commissioner for Education, Mr Tijani Ahmed, said government had established a Task Force to check the activities of illegal private school operators in the state, just as the Kogi government admitted that many of the 3000 private Secondary and Primary school in different parts of the state, were substandard.
Mrs Serah Agbaji, Director of Private Schools, Ministry of Education, Kogi, told NAN in Lokoja that only 60 per cent of the identified and registered private schools met the standards set by government.
Agbaji said that the current ratio of private to public schools in the state is 9: 1.
.The state Commissioner for Education, Mrs Rosemary Osikoya, said government would start closing down all unregistered and illegal private schools across the state from September.
Also, the Niger State government said that it had shut down 1,000 out of 3000 private schools across the state.
The Secretary of the state’s Private School Board, Alhaji Isah Jibrin, said that the schools were closed down between March and June this year for failing to meet standards.
“Schools that were found wanting in meeting the minimum standard requirement, have been shut down and given a window period to make up for their inadequacies or remain permanently shut,” he said.
To curb the proliferation of private schools in the state, Jibrin said that the Ministry of Education had stripped Local government Education Secretaries of the powers of approving the establishment of schools.
However, stakeholders in the South-East said they were satisfied with efforts of the state governments in checking the proliferation of sub-standard schools.
In Enugu, South East, the state government said that it had commenced the process of repealing its Educational Institutions, School Establishment and Minimum Standards Law and would replace it with a new one to effectively tackle proliferation of sub-standard schools.
Commissioner for Education in the state, Prof. Uchenna Eze, told NAN that the new law would sanction individuals or organisations operating schools without satisfying stipulated standards.
Eze said that there were over 2,000 approved private schools, 1,298 public primary schools, 298 public secondary schools, and 36 Technical, Science and Vocational public schools.
He said the proliferation of unapproved schools was disturbing, accusing parents of promoting such schools by patronising them.
In Awka, Prof. Kate Omenugha, Commissioner for Basic Education, said there was need for legislative framework to enable the ministry take actions, including shutting down private schools that fell short of the set standards.
She said the ministry was building a database of all private schools in the state to enable the identification of areas of need and possible government support.
“This database will form the basis for government’s planning that will lead to interventions in private schools,” she said.
Chairman of Ebonyi chapter of the NAPPS, Mr Kelechi Onyeoma, told NAN that the state had no fewer than 1,000 approved private secondary schools.
The chairman, who admitted the existence of unapproved private schools, said that it was the responsibility of the Ministry of Education to close down sub-standard and unapproved schools.
In Owerri, spokesman of the Imo Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Mr Johnny Ofoleta, said that private schools maintained standards in terms of classrooms, fields and toilets.
Ofoleta said proprietors of schools must have such facilities before they were licensed to admit students and function legally.
He said the Area Education Evaluators monitored and evaluated private schools to ensure they conformed to standards.
Worried by the negative impact of indiscriminate establishment of private schools, some stakeholders in the South West are now partnering with state governments to tackle the menace.
Prof. Adeniyi Olowofela, Oyo State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology said there were 3520 public Nursery, Primary and Secondary in the state, as against 4925 of such schools owned by private individuals and organizations.
He however said that the rising number of private schools in the state was as a result of the enabling environment created by the state government.
In Kwara, the State Ministry of Education and Human Capital Development said it had intensified shutting down of schools operating illegally in the state.
An official in the ministry, who pleaded for anonymity, said no fewer than 42 schools operating illegally across the three senatorial districts in the state, had so far been shut.
He said many proprietors of private schools were not complying with the conditions set by the government for establishing such institutions.
In Ogun, Chairman of the NUT in the state, Titilope Adebanjo, told NAN that 80 per cent of private schools, particularly at the primary level, were substandard and not registered.
He noted that the owners of such schools had continued to take advantage of the growing population of the state and the ignorance of some parents, who could not properly differentiate between good and sub-standard schools.
The chairman called on the government to develop an online register of private schools accredited by the state Ministry of Education.
The Acting Chairman of NAPPS in the state, Dr Lawrence Olumide, conceded that substandard private schools existed in the state, but said that the association lacked legal power to shut down schools.
He called on the government to enact laws to make establishment of schools without government approval, a crime that attracted severe penalty..
In Osun, The Education Commissioner, Mr Wasiu Omotunde-Young, said the Education Quality Assurance and Morality Enforcement Agency of the state government had been working hard to check the proliferation of private schools in the state.
Omotunde-Young told NAN in Osogbo that majority of private schools in the state were duly registered with the government, and were subjected to quality appraisal.
Similarly in Ondo, State Secretary of NUT, Mr Solomon Igbelowowa, said proliferation of private schools was taking its toll on the quality of education.
“If you move round the nooks and crannies of the state, you will see residential structures of two rooms being called a school; this is nothing but a mockery of education,” he lamented.
Mr Adesina Adeyanju, the state Chairman of All Nigerian Conference of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS), however, believed private schools were adding value to the education sector “considering the level of decadence in public schools.’’
Adeyanju argued that while there must be adequate control and regulation by government, concerned authorities must also understand the cravings of Nigerians for private school education.
In Ekiti, the Commissioner for Education, Jide Egunjbi, told NAN that proliferation of privately owned institutions had been checked by the policies put in place by government.
He said government had also entered into partnership with school owners to help check those flouting government regulations.
According to him, there are 420 private and 870 public primary schools in the state (NAN)
– Jul. 25, 2018 @ 10:45 GMT |
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Tags: Education stakeholders advocate strict measures to check proliferation of private schools – NAN survey
