Rivers closes down 1,866 “illegal” private schools

The Rivers State government on Friday announced the shutting down of operations of 1866 private schools which the government termed as illegal across the 23 local government areas of the state.

The state Commissioner for Education, Kaniyu Ebuku, announcing the decision in a statement said the state governor, Nyesom Wike directed all illegal, unapproved schools to cease operations with effect from September 1, 2017 stressing that the plans would be strictly enforced by the Ministry of Education.

He said names of affected schools had been published in a local paper and advised parents to refer to the newspaper for further information. Rivers State is replete with thousands of private schools of different levels and varying standards ranging from the absurd through the mushroom to the top notch and international standards with a high percentage of them not having the relevant government approvals.

Ebuku had earlier in the week hinted of the government plan during an inspection of ongoing rehabilitation work at the Government Girl‘s Secondary School, Rumuokuta by the Rivers State House of Assembly Committee on Education.

The commissioner had told journalists after the inspection; “We found that there are too many unapproved quack schools operating in the state, this is not acceptable for many reasons. They deliver poor quality education and because they are operating underground, they are not paying the required taxes they should pay if they are legitimate approved organisations and this is why we think they should cease operation from September”.

The House of Assembly Committee on Education had pledged its commitment to partner the state Ministry of Education to ensure the maintenance of infrastructure at the various schools in the state currently under rehabilitation by the state government.

Its chairman, Farah Dagogo who made the commitment of the assembly public during an inspection of  on-going rehabilitation work at Government Girl‘s Secondary School Rumuokuta, also commended the State Governor, Nyesom Wike and the Commissioner for Education for their efforts at repositioning the education sector in the state.