Kano State Government, Northwest Nigeria has inaugurated a committee that will ‘forcefully’ enforce the reduction of school fees in private and voluntary schools in the state by 25 per cent as part of measures to cushion the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on parents.
HumAngle reported that the Joint Committee of Private and Voluntary Schools Associations in the state had rejected the directive by the government that its members reduce school fees by 25 per cent.
The group said members could only afford to cut the fees by five per cent considering the negative impact of COVID-19 on their operations.
Public and private schools in Kano State reopened on Monday, October 12, 2020, for academic activities after a seven-month shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the State Government on Thursday inaugurated the committee to ensure that school owners comply with the directive or it would be forced to cancel the third term.
Muhammad Sunusi Kiru, Kano State Commissioner for Education who inaugurated the 27-man committee warned that “ Any school that refused to comply will face disciplinary action.”
“I also urge this committee to ensure justice and work for the interest of Kano people and its education system,” Kiru added.
Some of the members of the committee include Halima Sadiya Tukur, Ibrahim Ammani, Gwani Abdussalam Abdulqadir, Hajiya Lauratu Ado Diso as Chairperson of the committee and others.
Before this moment, leaders of the Joint Committee of Private and Voluntary Schools Associations had insisted that the COVID-19 pandemic caused serious damage to the school system.
The Joint Committee of Private and Voluntary Schools Associations said that it had earlier made suggestions to the government on the way forward after wide consultation.
It said in a statement, “…we consulted widely and despite the challenges faced by our members, in addition to the usual assistance, our schools offer to parents, we submitted our response to the Kano State Ministry of Education on Thursday, October 22, 2020, where we proposed three options.”
According to the association, it has requested the state government to “allow school owners to discuss with the parents and arrive at an agreed discount and a flexible means of collecting the school fees that will be applied to all parents in the school.”
It also suggested to the government to “allow schools and parents who have special challenges to discuss and agree on a case-by-case basis as it has been the practice in all our schools.”
The association said that the third option was that members implement a maximum of five per cent discount for all schools, in the third term 2019/2020 session only.
However, the Association of Private School Owners of Nigeria (APSON), Kano State chapter, on Sunday, November 1, 2020, agreed with the State Government on 25 per cent school fees reduction.
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