The Plateau State Government’s sledge hammer has fallen on no fewer than 5,000 private schools operating in the state, as part of moves to bring sanity to the school system. MUSA PAM write. For more than an estimated 50,000 children in private nursery, primary and secondary schools from low income backgrounds and underserved communities in Plateau State, acquiring education may no longer be at ease. This is as the state government, in a renewed determination, has clamped down on over 5,000 “illegal or unapproved” nursery, primary and secondary private schools operating across the state under sub-standard conditions.
The state government is not only worried by the proliferation of substandard private schools, which are mushrooming in every nook and cranny of the state without approval and operating licence, but also the urgent need to restore sanity into the basic education sub-sector. Therefore, the government has vowed that it would no longer be business as usual for owners and operators of such illegal and substandard private primary and secondary schools in the state.
Government’s policy
The government as part of the policies to reposition the school system for optimal performance in line with its aspirations, recently the Ministry of Education withdrew and deregistered all private schools in the state, and directed the proprietors or owners to obtain fresh operational licences based on approved guidelines and requirements of establishing schools.
The state Commissioner for Education (Secondary), Mrs. Elizabeth Wapmuk, who issued the directive for new registration of the private schools, explained that the government’s action was taken to checkmate the activities and proliferation of illegal schools in the state.
She, however, pointed out that the Governor Simon Lalong’s administration was determined to strengthen the basic education system with a view to reposition it to be more qualitative by providing a congenial teaching-learning environment for all children to thrive irrespective of their socio-economic background, sex, age and location.
Similarly, Mrs. Wapmuk further explained that the decision had become necessary in view of the government’s disenchantment over the state of most of the schools, and the commitment to forestall the proliferation of illegal schools, whose operation is not only substandard and questionable, but also not in tandem with the goals of the government.
Announcing the reform, the Commissioner said: “This is to inform the general public that the operation licence of all private nursery/preprimary, primary, junior secondary and senior secondary schools in Plateau State are hereby withdrawn and deregistered with effect from July 28, 2022.
“The directive means that all private nursery/pre-primary, primary and secondary schools in the state will have to revalidate their certificates of operation.”
She explained that records available to the ministry revealed that there were over 5,000 private schools in the state that are operating without approved licence, adding that “85 per cent of the 485 private schools earlier granted licence had compromised their standard, while 90 per cent of the private schools does not even adhere strictly to the government policies, in terms of their mandate and guidelines for the establishment of private schools in the state.”
Piqued by the development, the Commissioner said a list of schools that have been cleared to operate would soon be published in some national dailies, and advised stakeholders, particularly parents to take cognisance of the government’s reform policy and ensure that their children are not enrolled or sent to “unregistered or uncertified” private schools.
Parents’ anxiety
However, following the government’s directive, indications have also emerged that many children might drop out of school when schools resume for the new session in September, as their parents might not be able to send them back to school. Consequently, some parents from poor socio-economic backgrounds have therefore expressed anxiety over what they described as their inability to afford the school fees to be charged by the registered or approved schools. Meanwhile, investigations by New Telegraph revealed that the so-called “illegal” private schools charged between N20,000 and N40,000 as school fees for children in both primary and secondary schools, while registered/ approved schools charged between N60,000 and above N100,000 as school fees per term
To parents, the new policy would force many of them to withdraw their children from school due to high school fees, especially when only the registered schools would be allowed to operate. Lamenting the development, stakeholders, who spoke with our Correspondent, explained that most parents in the state have no option than to enroll their children and wards in private schools because of the level of decay of most public schools, which merely exist without functional classrooms, instructional materials or facilities and adequate qualified teachers mainly as a result of lack of government’s attention. They particularly attributed lack of a clear cut policy or non-existence of free education in the state to the urge by parents to send their children to private schools, as well as the challenges confronting the development of education.
Challenges
New Telegraph investigations furtherrevealed thatthegovernment’s action is a result of the poor standard of education delivery in most of the private schools, which mainly hire secondary school graduates/leavers to teach the students, instead of recruiting graduates of the Nigerian Certificate in Education (NCE), which is the national minimum teaching qualification, or holders of university degrees, who are expected to have been duly registered with the Teachers’ Registration Council Nigeria (TRCN).
The state Ministry of Education, it was learnt, said that the proliferation of unregistered/illegal private schools in the state had robbed the state of the potential impact of education, even as it noted that other reliable reports indicated that many of the private schools hid their locations in order to circumvent routine inspection by the Quality Assurance officials of the ministry because some of the schools are serving as hideouts for criminal elements.
According to the Commissioner, the Quality Assurance guidelines require that all private schools should renew their operating licence after every five years, but unfortunately the licence of private schools operating in the state had not been renewed for several decades.
Thus, in line with the new requirements put in place by the state Education Ministry and the guidelines by the Federal Minister of Education, the state government has resolved to fast-track the revalidation process.
Towards this end, all private schools that had initially been issued operating licence(s) will under the new policy submit the same to the Ministry of Education, while new schools would be issued licence after certifying the reviewed Federal and the state Quality Assurance procedures for the establishment and operation of private schools.
Besides, Revalidating Committees, Wapmuk said, had been set up to revalidate the licences of all private schools in the state, and in this regard, all private school owners/proprietors should proceed to their respective Zonal Education Offices in their areas of operation with all relevant documents for the revalidation exercise with effect from Monday, August 8, 2022, while only schools that satisfied their revalidation would be allowed to resume for the 2022/2023 academic session, billed to commence in September.
Wapmuk, however, disclosed further that a list of schools that had been cleared by the state Commissioner for Education during the revalidation exercise, would be published in some national dailies, even as she warned parents not to send or enrol their children and wards in schools that are not duly registered and approved, as such schools run the risk of being barred from registering students for and participating in all national or state examinations, including the First School Leaving Certificate; Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE); the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE), conducted by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and the National Examination Council (NECO), as well as National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB) examinations.
Explaining further, the statement pointed out that the exercise, apart from checking the proliferation of illegal and sub-standard private schools, the action was part of the proactive efforts taken by the government to reposition, support and guide those schools operating within the ambits of the law towards achieving quality education delivery for all.
Stakeholders’ reaction
Meanwhile, critical stakeholders in the state’s education project, including the Chairman of the Plateau State chapter of the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), Mr. Nanle Musa Umar, and the state chapter of the Association of Private School Owners of Nigeria (APSON), led by Mr. Solomon Musa, have described as worrisome the proliferation of substandard private schools across the state, saying the directive is a welcome development.
Umar noted that the association is in total support of the government’s decision as the policy would go a long way in sanitising the private school system and restructure it to operate professionally. According to him, since it is the Ministry of Education that approved the establishment of private schools, usually owners of schools are expected to obtain establishment forms and guidelines that they will have to follow, but this has not been so in many instances.
“Over the years the state Ministry of Education has been drawing our attention, especially past leadership of the association in the state to do the needful and this was not done. But, today the Commissioner and other Directors in the ministry felt that the needful should be enforced and done. Private school owners have to cooperate with the government in actualising this goal by keeping faith with the laid-down rules and regulations guiding the establishment of schools,” he said.
According to Umar, in the past, private schools were only issued approval letters, but the state government has now decided to issue operating licence to only recognised private schools that have the full approval of the government to operate purposely to reduce the establishment of illegal and sub-standard schools operating across the state without the requisite standard and quality.
Under the new approval regime, the operational licences, he added, would be valid for five years after which they would be reviewed or validated for another five years. He added: “Presently, what we have is that private schools in the state are grouped into three categories. We have those that are issued approval letters by the state government, which are issued by the Department of Quality Assurance in the Ministry of Education.
“We also have those that are already operating, but are processing their licences based on the regulations to obtain the approval letter, while the third category are those that feel that setting up a school is merely a business for profit, and thus they can start and run such schools anyhow without obtaining any form or make themselves available to the government for scrutiny and approval of their intention, but rather they secured a little accommodation space and start a school only to operate illegally without the government approval,” Umar explained.
The NAPPS Chairman, however, reiterated that the association was totally in support of the government in its renewed effort at sanitising the state’s education system and to sanction those illegal school operators found guilty of running afoul of the guidelines and regulations.
“It is quite a welcome development. As a recognised association, we are giving every support to the state government in this decision to ensure proper and effective management of the private school system in the state,” he noted. On its part, the Association of Private School Owners of Nigeria (APSON) disclosed that there are no fewer than 7,000 illegal private schools currently operating in the state. The Chairman described the situation as worrisome, adding that such development is at variance to the growth, development and delivery of qualitative education in the state, and should not be allowed to thrive.
Musa said: “As I speak to you, we have 7,000 illegal private schools operating across Plateau State. I am telling you this on authority as the Chairman of APSON in the state. These schools did not obtain any operational approval or licence from the state government, and yet they have been operating mostly under sub-standard conditions over the years
“Yes, as private school owners and proprietors, we are complementing the government’s efforts at providing unfettered access to qualitative education, but the proliferation of substandard private schools is a sad development in the state’s education sector. The government needs to do the needful for us to collectively reposition our education system.”
But, to stakeholders, several so-called illegal private schools that are spread across the state operating without standard have been turned into money-making ventures by their owners, who are ripping parents and guardians of their hard-earned income due to the collapse of the public school system. They, however, accused the state government of not paying proper attention to the development of public schools, even as they insisted that this has continued to encourage and bolster the activities of operators of illegal private schools in the state.
“For the government to succeed in the education sector, they must take full responsibility of ensuring that public schools are not only adequately funded, but should also be made functional with the provision of adequate qualified teachers and conducive teaching-learning environment for qualitative education to take place,” they said.
Besides, the stakeholders also spoke on the need for the state government to introduce and implement the compulsory and free education policy at primary and secondary school level in the state for the children in line with the Education For All (EFA) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) programmes by paying deliberate attention to the development of public school system, if genuinely it wants to restore sanity to the state’s education sector.
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