By Sadiq Abubakar
Maiduguri
Chairperson of Private Schools Proprietors Association, Borno state chapter, Hajiya Ashe Wakilbe, has said that Ebola and insecurity in the state have continuously affected the schools’ curriculums of private schools despite the fact that NECO and WAEC exams were successfully held before the schools vacated.
She also lamented that one of the major problems of private schools in the state was non-payment of salaries of teachers in the past two months.
Wakilbe, who stated this on Sunday at a media chat, however, said efforts were being made to settle the backlog of salaries when schools resumed as most of schools largely depend on the school and exams fees from both the pupils and students as mal or source of revenue generation.
She assured that already efforts were being made in most private schools to teach hygiene and health such as washing of hands after going to toilets, eating food, and playing, cutting of nails, barbing of hair, bathing and cleanliness, among others.
The NUT state chairman, Comrade Bulama Aviso, also appealed to the state government to re-open schools as children were idle and could be exposed to other social vices.
Chairman of ABU Education Students Association, Borno state, as a parent, Alhaji Umar Garba Shani, asserted that the long stay at home of children had resulted in many vices, including crimes and prostitution as the children were idle” and this has drastically affected the performance of the children who have over stayed at home mingling with their peers and roaming the streets.”
He appealed to the state government as a matter of importance and urgency to re-open all schools in the interest of humanity and the future of the young generation towards bundling a virile and strong state and nation by giving the children solid foundation through education.
However, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Alhaji Mohammed Kauji, who had earlier written an official circular in respect of the closure of all schools, could not be reached at the time of filing in this report.
