The special adviser to the Kano State governor on private and voluntary schools, Baba Umar, has warned private school proprietors who have been illegally charging exorbitant fees to stop, as the state government would not fold its arms and allow such exploitation to continue.
Baba Umar who gave the warning while addressing newsmen in his office in Kano yesterday, said, “Henceforth, no proprietor is allowed to either unilaterally increase school fees without following the laid down procedures, or force parents to buy books and uniforms from their school.”
According to him, all those castigating government on the measures being taken to check the excesses of such proprietors are doing so to protect their illegal activities.
The special adviser further said any proprietor that is not satisfied with the measures being taken by the government to sanitise the system should seek legal redress.
The government also threatened to withdraw the license of any private school operator that fails to fill and return the revalidated form issued to them recently.
Special adviser said the issuance of the forms to the school proprietors was necessary to enable the government have data of students in all private schools.
Umar said of the over 7,000 public schools that exist in Kano, only 2,000 had so far filled and submitted their forms.
He noted that the private schools had been violating laid down rules that include the payment of 10 percent tax from the school fees they collect.
“We discovered that majority of the school proprietors instead of paying their tax into the government account, divert such to some personal accounts belonging to the former executive secretary of the board,” Umar said.
