The chairman of the Secondary Education Board, (SEB), Dr Yahaya Musa Muhammed, has charged regulatory agencies and their employees to be more thorough and proactive in checking the excesses of private school proprietors who cut corners or refuse to follow rules designed to enhance quality of education in the country.
Dr Muhammed stated that the proliferation of private schools in the country would negatively affect education standards, especially when regulatory agencies abandon their statutory responsibilities of ensuring that rules and regulations guiding school administration are followed to the letter.
The chairman, who made these remarks in an interview soon after the graduation ceremony of the Islamic Leadership Academy, Kuje, Federal Capital Territory, said, “The proliferation of
private schools will ultimately pose serious problems for the country when regulatory agencies are not firm in the discharge of their duties.
“Due to the open economic system in the country, more people will continue to venture into school ownership because government regards education more as a budgetary expenditure rather than an instrument for national growth and investment.
“What we are concerned about now is that regulatory agencies should be more active and properly supervise private schools to ensure that
proprietors adhere to discipline and ensure that their schools operate within approved standards rather than as institutions to milk parents.”
Dr Muhammed, who doubles as the director of Islamic Leadership Academy Kuje, also harped on the need to increase funding for girl-child education now that Secondary Education Commission has been established.
He also called for strengthening and better funding of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) to ensure that set objectives are achieved.
“We are clamouring that secondary education should be co-funded by the federal, states and local governments,” he added.
While calling on parents to support private school proprietors to enhance quality and produce employable graduates, the director stated that the Islamic academy graduated 300 students in the 2018/2019 academic year.
