The Kano State Government says most private schools in the state operate illegally without licence.
Muhammad Sanusi-Kiru, the state’s Commissioner for Education said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Thursday in Kano.
“Majority of the schools are not captured in our data bank, so, by implication, they are operating without the knowledge of the government.
“Also by implication, they are operating without paying necessary tax to the government, they do not have certification, so, by implication they are operating illegally.
“I assure you that we are introducing some radical reforms in the sector, because even the revenue some are paying there is nothing to write home about.
“By the time we decentralise the operations of the private schools management board, we will introduce zonal offices to regulate their activities,” he said.
Mr Sanusi-Kiru added: “This will make officer to be responsible and accountable for the number of schools in their zone, and the officers will report to the executive secretary of the board.
“Such will assist us to have the complete data and the number of private schools operating in the state.
“By doing this, we are going to engage them in head count, we are going to know the total number of their enrollment and their teaching staff. Because, all these are important in what we call education planning.
“When you are planning education, you need to Know what is here and what is not there. By the grace of God, I assure you by next year, you are going to see a robust change in the sector.”
He said that proprietors found disobeying government’s directive on the reduction of third term school fees will be sanctioned.
He said that those that were registered who disobeyed the order, may lose their licenses, to serve as deterrence to others.
“This third term we are talking about, has only seven weeks, they should be fair to parents to accept the reduction, instead of spending 15 weeks in the term, they were given only seven weeks.
“And after the seven weeks, they are going for two weeks break, before returning for another term, and they will start asking parents to pay another school fees, they are not fair at all.
“We wanted to ask them to reduce the fees by 50 per cent, but we considered some of their challenges and reduced it to 25 per cent, ” he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the government has set up a committee to inspect all private schools in the state to ensure that they operate within the standard set.
NAN
