The Federal Government through the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has explained to the private school operators that the ongoing school census exercise at the basic education level across the country has nothing to do with taxation or imposition of levy(ies).
The Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr Hamid Bobboyi, made the clarification on Tuesday, in Lagos, at a stakeholders’ meeting with the leadership of various private school associations and the head of teachers in public schools in the state.
The meeting was held in conjunction with the Lagos Universal Basic Education Board (LASUBEB) at its office in Maryland, Ikeja.
Bobboyi said the explanation was necessitated by the attitude of private school owners in Lagos State because they are not cooperating with the UBEC/SUBEB field officers who are deployed to conduct the school census branded as the “National Personnel Audit” (NPA) exercise in the state.
The field officers, who had been in the state for some weeks back and also at the meeting with the leadership of private school associations in attendance reported that the private schools had not been granting them access to their premises let alone allowing them to do the heads count as being done in the public schools.
UBEC boss, who also allowed the private school operators to state their own side of the story, the attitude they said was borne out of the premises that government at all levels had never fared to them in any way, said the sole objective of the school census is for the benefits of not only the basic education sector at both public and private circles but also for Nigeria’s education system and the economy generally.
He said there would not be genuine government and international donors’ interventions in basic education, particularly in a state such as Lagos State which has the highest number of private schools and students in the country if there is no accurate, credible and acceptable education database.
He said the donor agencies for example usually rely on data to offer help when needed, stressing that it is only through reliable statistics that issues such as the huge number of out-of-school children, and UN’s SDGs education for all projects and so forth can be meaningfully addressed in the country.
He said it was, however, surprising that public schools in Lagos State are resisting census while their counterparts in other states, including the poorly profile ones and Arabic schools particularly in the northern part welcome the exercise warmly.
He, however, appealed to the leadership of various private schools’ associations to fully support and cooperate with the census officials as they will be going around.
In his own remark, the Executive Chairman of LASUBEB, Mr Wahab Alawiye-King, re-emphasised that the exercise is not meant for taxation purposes.
He said Lagos State could not afford to be left out of possible interventions that may come from the Federal Government and international donors to address challenges in basic education.
He, therefore, asked the private school owners, who claim to have up to 21 different associations such as the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools(NAPPS), the Association of Formidable Education Development (AFED), League of Muslim Schools Proprietors among others in Lagos State alone to give their total support and cooperation on the census project.
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