‘Why parents are critical stakeholders in education sector’

AN Educationist and Proprietor of  Highpoint International Nursery, Primary and Secondary School,  Minna, Niger State, Honourable Usman Gimba has described parents  as very critical stakeholders in the education sector in the  country, particularly, in  the day to-day running of  private schools.

He said whenever this  critical stakeholders fulfilled their obligations  in terms of prompt payment of  their wards’  school fees  in their  respective schools , that proprietors of such schools make some reasonable  revenues to run the schools efficiently.

Honourable Gimba, stated further that many school proprietors in the country are at the mercies of parents, who sometimes withdraw their children from private schools because they could no longer afford to pay the school fees.

“At Highpoint International Schools , Minna, this has always been the trend. There have been situations whereby parents criminally withdraw their children or wards   from your school  after having enjoyed certain privileges of being allowed to put  the children in school based on undertaken to pay when  condition improves  for them,” he said.

“Since I started running a private school, which is about 10years ago,  whether there is a recession or not,  things have not been easy at all; school proprietors suffer in terms of the running costs and provisions of  adequate infrastructures for the schools; ‘you are on your own .”

“And in view of this, it makes it critical for school proprietors to borrow money from the bank. And when you succeed in borrowing money, you end up paying with high interest rates,” he stressed.

Honnourable Gimba then appealed to the government to come to the aid of private schools owners by way of giving them grants, stressing that “it will go a long way to keep the labour market active in terms of making more employment opportunities available.”