PRIVATE school operators in Nigeria have cried out to government across all levels to stop using them to boost their revenue generation through various taxes and levies.
National President, League of Muslim School Proprietors (LEAMSP), Mr AbdulWaheed Obalakun, made this appeal in an exclusive interview with the Nigerian Tribune.
He said that 61 years after political independence, Nigerian government at all levels ought to have understood better that private schools exist to complement their efforts in providing education to the citizens.
“So, they ought to have stopped using private schools to boost their internally-generated revenues, but should instead provide an enabling environment for us to thrive,” he stressed.
Mr Obalakun said though he believed strongly that the country had made some progress in education in the past 61 years, the situation did not call for celebration.
He noted that the major problem facing the education sector in the country, just like every other sector, is policy implementation.
He noted that Nigeria usually comes up with good policies and programmes that if well-implemented would have taken the country higher in the comity of prosperous countries, but poor or non-implementation of those policies keep retarding its progress.
“We need to do something about policy implementation and also make the environment conducive for both the government and private schools,” he urged.
He also blamed schools and individuals, including parents, for the slow progress in the education sector over the years.
“While some parents give money to their children to bribe teachers to look away in the examination hall, in order to cheat to pass examinations, some private schools aid examination malpractice for their students to record high grades so as to deceive unsuspecting parents and the public that they are operating high standard education,” he noted.
Obalakun however, urged all the stakeholders to live up to their respective responsibilities to move the sector to a greater height.
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