Govt moves against ‘prohibitive’ fees in private schools

Rukkayatu-RufaiTHE Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyat Rufa’i, yesterday announced that the Federal Government would meet with proprietors of private educational institutions, especially the universities and secondary schools, to dialogue on the “prohibitive” high cost of fees in their institutions.

The fees paid in the private educational institutions, she said, is beyond what ordinary Nigerians can afford.

Rufa’i, at a leadership forum in Abuja, also lamented the frustrations of working through the normal civil service system to push government policies, as all ministers serving in the Federal Government are facing “a herculean task” in trying to enforce new initiatives needed to transform the system.

The minister also explained government’s declaration of a state of emergency in the almajiri education system to move them from becoming a time-bomb in the country.

And the Minister of State for Education, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, has directed the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) to make special interventions in Borno State to rebuild schools burnt by miscreants.

Wike gave the directive in Maiduguri yesterday when he visited schools burnt by miscreants, and almajiri schools under construction.

He said the Federal Government would not allow basic education to suffer because of security challenges in any part of the country and regretted that schools attended by innocent children were razed down despite the huge investments by government.

“The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has been directed to immediately intervene to rebuild these schools.

“We cannot allow our children to suffer under this condition. There is no way that proper learning can take place here.”

Rufa’i noted that the high fees in private educational institutions are “getting out of control” as “in Nigeria today, if a child is going to a private secondary school and gets admission to the public universities, his parents may have paid more to sustain him or her in a secondary school than a university. We are not thinking of fees at this moment in public schools because if we do, with all the problems we have in this country, particularly in terms of poverty level of our people, students with intellect, with genuine intelligence will be locked out of school. So, that is why we cannot talk of any fees in the government educational institutions.

“But for the private schools, we have been talking about this. But we never took any bold initiative because of the fundamental human rights and their rights in establishing the schools and the facilities they use. But because of the complaints that it is becoming unbearable for Nigerians, we probably will call and hold a meeting with them and see how to make it a little bit more uniform since we are having the same delivery at the same level of schooling. Really, these high schools fees are becoming out of control. I assure you that we will call a meeting of the owners of these private universities and discuss with them how to move forward. We may have to do that because it is getting out of control.”

Rufa’i regretted that most of the initiatives being implemented by her Ministry is being slowed down as “working with the civil servants is a herculean task. If you are not careful, many of your initiatives may be killed. The system is not working. And if you have a system that is not helping you, it doesn’t have the need to exist. Until you are bold, you don’t achieve anything. Civil servants must change their attitude because they are creating problems for every minister in the government.”

On the almajiri crisis in the northern part of the country, she admitted that “we are backward when it comes to access to education. So, we are expanding the number of schools. This is because we have about 10 million children and adults with no access to education and we have to expand primary, junior and secondary schools so that children who are out of schools will have to be enrolled and be accommodated. And towards this, we have to work with the state governments as primary and secondary schools are the primary responsibilities of the local and state governments. We are doing this because we are signatory with the Education For All initiative and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

“We realised that the major category of children out of schools are the almajiri who roam the streets in most northern states. For the first time in the history of this country, President Goodluck Joanthan approved that we have to address the problem of the almajiris from the top, that is the Federal Government. We now collaborate with the states. He approved for us to establish the schools and we are developing about 32 of such schools. And this was even before we started having serious security crisis in the northern states. Most of these schools have been completed. In the next two weeks, the first model almajiri school that has been completed will be commissioned by President Jonathan in Sokoto State and it is going to be handed over to the state government.

The arrangement we have with President Jonathan is that we will construct these almajiri schools with all the facilities required including boarding facilities and hand them over to the states to manage. We have already entered an agreement with the state government on this through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). So, anywhere we establish the schools the running will be left for the state governments. In the second phase, we have about 63 almajiri schools with 18 of them in the North and three in the South where the problem of almajiri is developing and we have to be proactive in addressing it now before it becomes too late for us.

“Altogether, we have about 94 of these schools being developed. When they are completed, we will bring these almajiri children from the streets and register them along with their malams (teachers). They will now benefit from both the Islamic and the formal education.  We want them to develop the capacity to contribute to society. Almost all Moslems benefited from this Islamic and formal educations but the schools were separate then. But we are in a state of emergency now on the issue of almajiri schools, we have to integrate them. This will take the children out of the streets to the schools to develop them for them to become something in future.”

THE Minister of Education, Prof Ruqayat Rufa’i, yesterday announced that the Federal Government would meet with proprietors of private educational institutions especially the universities and secondary schools to dialogue on the “prohibitive” high cost of fees in their institutions.

The fees paid in the private educational institutions, she said, is beyond what ordinary Nigerians can afford.

Rufa’i, at a leadership forum in Abuja, also lamented the frustrations of working through the normal civil service system to push government policies, as all ministers serving in the federal government are facing “a herculean task” in trying to enforce new initiatives needed to transform the system.

The Minister also explained the government’s declaration of a state of emergency in the ‘almajiri’ education system to move them from becoming a time-bomb in the country.

And the Minister of State for Education, Barrister Ezenwo Nyesom Wike has directed the Universal Basic Education Commission, (UBEC), to make special interventions in Borno State to rebuild schools burnt by miscreants.

 

 

 

Wike gave the directive in Maiduguri yesterday when he visited schools burnt by miscreants, and Almajiri schools under construction.

He said the Federal Government would not allow basic education suffer because of security challenges in any part of the country and regretted that schools attended by innocent children were razed down, despite the huge investments by government.

“The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), has been directed to immediately intervene to rebuild these schools.

“We cannot allow our children to suffer under this condition. There is no way that proper learning can take place here.”

Rufa’i noted that the high fees in private educational institutions is “getting out of control as “in Nigeria today, if a child is going to a private secondary schools and gets admission to the public universities, his parents may have paid more to sustain him or her in a primary school than a university. We are not thinking of fees at this moment in public fees because if we do, with all the problems we have in this country, particularly in terms of poverty level of our people, students with intellect, with genuine intelligence will be locked out of school. So, that is why we cannot talk of any fees in the government educational institutions.

“But for the private schools, we have been talking about this. But we never took any bold initiative because of the fundamental human rights and their rights in establishing the schools and the facilities they use. But because of the complaints that it is becoming unbearable for Nigerians, we probably will call and hold a meeting with them and see how to make it a little bit more uniform since we are having the same delivery at the same level of schooling. Really, these high schools fees are becoming out of control. I assure you that we will call a meeting of the owners of these private universities and discuss with them how to move forward. We may have to do that because it is getting out of control.”

Rufa’i regretted that most of the initiatives being implemented by her Ministry is being slowed down as “working with the civil servants is a herculean task. If you are not careful, many of your initiatives may be killed. The system is not working. And if you have a system that is not helping you, it doesn’t have the need to exist. Until you are bold, you don’t achieve anything. Civil servants must change their attitude because they are creating problems for every minister in the government.”

On the Almajiri crisis in the Northern part of the country, she admitted that “we are backward when it comes to access to education. So, we are expanding the number of schools. This is because we have about 10 million children and adults with no access to education and we have to expand primary, junior and secondary schools so that children who are out of schools will have to be enrolled and be accommodated. And towards this, we have to work with the State governments as primary and secondary schools are the primary responsibilities of the local and State governments. We are doing this because we are signatory with the Education For All initiative and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

“We realised that the major category of children out of schools are the ‘almajiri’ who roam the streets in most Northern States. For the first time in the history of this country, President Goodluck Joanthan approved that we have to address the problem of the almajiris from the top, that is the federal government. We now collaborate with the States. He approved for us to establish the schools and we are developing about 32 of such schools. And this was even before we started having serious security crisis in the Northern States. Most of these schools have been completed. In the next two weeks, the first model almajiri school that has been completed will be commissioned by President Jonathan in Sokoto State and it is going to be handed over to the State government.   The arrangement we have with President Jonathan is that we will construct these almajiri schools with all the facilities required including boarding facilities and hand them over to the States to manage. We have already entered an agreement with the State government on this through an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding). So, anywhere we establish the schools the running will be left for the State governments. In the second phase, we have about 63 almajiri schools with 18 of them in the North and three in the South where the problem of almajiri is developing and we have to be proactive in addressing it now before it becomes too late for us.

“Altogether, we have about 94 of these schools being developed. When they are completed, we will bring these almajiri children from the streets and register them along with their malams (teachers). They will now benefit from both the Islamic and the formal education.  We want them to develop the capacity to contribute to society. Almost all Moslems benefited from this Islamic and formal educations but the schools were separate them. But we are in s state of emergency now on the issue of almajiri schools, we have to integrate them. This will take the children out of the streets to the schools to develop them for them to become something in future.”