Half of Kaduna’s private schools unregistered – Official

The Kaduna State Quality Assurance Authority says it will go after over 2,000 unregistered private primary and secondary schools operating illegally in the state.

The Director-General of the authority, Hajiya Umma Ahmad, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna on Monday.

Ms Ahmad explained that only about 2,000 out of the over 4,000 private schools operating in the state have registered with the state government.

According to her, some of the schools have been operating in the state for over 20 years, without registration, to avoid regulation and evade tax payment to the government.

“As at middle 2019, only about 1,000 out of the over 4,000 private schools in the state have registered with the state government, until we started closing the illegal schools down.

“So far, about 2,000 have registered and we are going after the remaining 2,000 until all have registered.

“This will enable us to effectively monitor and regulate them to ensure they operate within the stipulated standard in line with our mandate.

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“That child, regardless of which school he attends is a child under the care of Kaduna State with obligation to provide such a child with quality education he or she deserves.

“Therefore, the state government will continue to ensure that both public and private schools provide quality education for children, so they will grow and become intelligent, skillful, innovative and creative citizens,” she said.

She assured the public that the agency would continue to go after unregistered and substandard private schools in the state, threatening that all substandard and illegal public schools would be closed.

The director-general also said that the agency would soon publish the list of registered private schools in the state online to enable parents identify illegal schools and avoid them.

“We will also come up with a form of ranking of private and public schools from the best to the worst in the state, to guide parents in choosing the best school for their kids.

“This will spur competition among schools and encourage them to improve their facilities,” she added.

(NAN)