By Sunday John
Lafia – The Nasarawa State Government says it will shut private schools discovered to be operating without its approval.
The Commissioner for Education, Mr Tijjani Ahmed, disclosed this on Monday to the correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lafia.
Ahmed said the unregistered schools were discovered following a census conducted recently by the ministry.
He added that the names of the affected schools would soon be made public.
The commissioner also noted that some schools were operating within un-conducive environments where there were no spaces for pupils to recreate and others in uncompleted buildings.
“All defaulting private schools that are yet to pay their yearly fees must do so before the end of April to avoid sanctions.
“It is no longer going to be business-as-usual where some people will short-change government by not paying the charges due to it.
“Proprietors of private schools should strictly adhere to the guidelines for the establishment and operation of such ventures as stipulated by the state government.
“The ministry has already circulated a notice to owners of all the private schools in the state informing them of an upward review of the registration fees for new schools and renewal fees for existing ones.
“We give all private schools up to April 30th to update their records and those operating illegally should come to the ministry for proper documentation and payment or face sanctions,” he said.
Ahmed said that the ministry had constituted a taskforce to go round to enforce the directive.
