Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has made a major policy shift that averted a big clash or face-off in the state over the order to shut down 1866 private schools declared as unregistered.
Rivers State has over 5000 private schools from pre-nursery to secondary schools. A registration and audit exercise began in January 2017 before 1866 were found culpable.
Threat to shut down the schools began in January 2017 when the governor summoned a meeting of all private schools in the state in the Government House. In April, the governor ordered a shut down. Many groups pressed for review but the governor stood his ground. He reaffirmed his stand in August 2017 and this sent fears down the spines of the affected schools and the over 20,000 academic and non-academic staff working there.
A circular issued on August 16, 2017; however seems to offer soft landing to the affected schools. The circular was signed by the permanent secretary, Ministry of Education, Dagogo Adonye Hart. It gave the affected schools a chance to pay between N100,000 and N200,000 termed application fees for categories ranging from pre-nursery, nursery, primary, secondary, upgrading of Junior Secondary and Senior Secondary school (JSS, SSS) at N50,000 each category.
The deadline was given as September 1, 2017, which incidentally became a public holiday. This led to a flurry of activities as the affected schools rushed to pay in the amounts to banks on August 31, 2017, being the last working day before the deadline.
Hart said the governor graciously gave a second opportunity for unapproved private schools in the state to regularsise their status before the new academic session begins in September. “Any school that fails to take advantage of this opportunity will be shut down as earlier directed by His Excellency. The proprietors are therefore, advised to visit the Quality Assurance Department of the Ministry of Education for regularisation of their schools”.
Fees structure was also announced thus: Upgrade fee N100,000; Approval fee for Nursery N150,000; for Primary N200,000; and Secondary N300,000 while annual renewal is N100,000 flat. Parents and guardians were warned not to risk their wards in unapproved schools but to cross check with the Quality Assurance Department.
Origin of threat:
The threat began in January 2017 when the governor summoned a meeting with the over 5000 schools owners. Licenses of top 16 schools that failed to show up were ordered withdrawn. This created uproar.
The uproar made people to check the quality of the schools about to close such as Charles Dale Memorial International School with 98 percent pass rate in 2015/2016 May/June WAEC; 1st,2nd,3rd and 5th positions in National Chemistry Olympiad Competition 2016; Nigeria’s representative at 50th International Mendeleev Chemistry Olympiad in Moscow, Russia in 2016; Winner of 2014 Cowbell mathematics competition in senior category and 1st and 3rd positions in junior category.
The media said Wike ordered the education commissioner to sanction them for not attending a meeting — “not for breaking a law or a regulation, no, but because the governor may have a shot temper”.
At the meeting, Wike also announced that majority of principals of public secondary schools in the state would be suspended for charging illegal levies which placed unnecessary burden on parents. Wike told the school proprietors at the meeting that his actions were aimed at improving the quality of education in the state.
It was at the meeting that the governor, who served as minister of state for education under Goodluck Jonathan, announced the setting up of a committee to undertake the comprehensive audit of all private schools in the state for the purpose of ascertaining the quality of teachers in such schools, the nature of their environment and their operational capacity.
He said: “This audit committee will work with stakeholders. All schools that are not approved would be shut down immediately. We cannot continue to have illegal schools in the state.” He said henceforth, no private school would have permanent approval but only be given temporary approvals, subject to periodic reviews.
Wike justifies closure; says they are magic centres
The governor recently reaffirmed his decision, saying most of the private schools were used as magic centres (malpractices) in external examinations. The governor also said his administration would strengthen the education sector of the state. Wike explained that the action was because they did not have government approval.
Wike stated this when the management of Jesuit Memorial College, Mbodo-Aluu, visited him in Port Harcourt. According to him, the affected schools were shut for failing to meet specified standards of the state ministry of education.
He also advised parents with children in the schools to relocate their wards as the government was poised to fully implement measures aimed at strengthening the education sector in the state by September, 2017. “We want to maintain standards that will uplift education in the state,” he said.
The governor also explained that his administration was committed to transforming the Rivers and empowering its people through an enhanced education. The governor condemned examination malpractice associated with some illegal schools operating as West African Examination Council (WAEC) centres in some parts of the state.
He had directed the ministry of education to issue a 21-day ultimatum to operators of unregistered private schools to get approval or face immediate closure by the government.
This was by the commissioner for education, a professor, Kaniye Ebeku, who has been reappointed. He had given the warning during a meeting with members of the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) in Rivers State on Wednesday, April 27, at his office.
Criticsms:
Most critics said the state government should have initiated a gradual phasing out of unregistered schools, knowing full well that it takes years to mature a school project. The publicity secretary of the APC, Chris Finebone, said it was sad that while their leader and former governor of the state now transportation minister, Chibuike Amaechi, created about 20,000 jobs in schools starting with 13,200 teachers employed in one swoop with additional jobs of cleaners, security, health officers in his 500 new primary schools, that the opposite is now the case.
Relief:
Relief seems to return to the about 20,000 workers that faced mass sack in September. A source in NAPPS said each school employs an average of 10 teachers for an average of eight classes plus minders and non academic teachers making about 20,000 workers that would have lost their jobs had the governor not given the soft landing. BDSUNDAY gathered that property owners where most of the affected schools operate from have been under panic. One school in Elelenwo has since closed shop and placed the property for rent but no client has shown up because of the lull in the property market in the oil city.
The source also said they pleaded with the governor for three years’ grace but he insisted on one year. Their calculation is that after paying the N100,000 or more to start processing, they would survive for the next one year. Many said they had rushed to acquire land to start meeting the conditions.
Fear of loss of income is also pervasive in service providers in the private schools such as book suppliers, food vendors, guards, etc.
They said it is the same so called magic centres that have all the funds to meet government requirement whereas the others that play straight may be hardest hit.
Politics:
Many of the school owners wish to change to mere lesson centres for pupils and students that may not afford the high fees in private schools and violence (cultism) in public schools in the state. They argued that it was the failure of the public school system over the years with violence and exam fraud that forced parents to seek alternatives which led to fees explosion. It is the fees explosion that in turn caused massive appropriation of private schools.
The Amaechi approach was to build world class schools that began to draw mass exodus from private to public schools. The introduction of the Quality Assurance Department was to put pressure on both the public and private schools that would gradually transform quality of education in Rivers State.
Others said the private schools could buy time till election fever in 2018 and 2019 that would keep both the government and the opposition too busy to care. Some said the governor had just won back the 20,000 votes that would have been handed over to the opposition from the private schools sector by those threatened by the shut down policy.
While the order to close schools may lose votes in some quarters, it may win votes in other quarters that have hailed the strict policy.
Ignatius Chukwu
