A presidential aspirant of the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), Chief Yomi Otubela, has urged government to establish Education banks that would make loans available to private school owners at compassionate rate.
This, he said, will automatically bring down the cost of running private schools and subsequently reduce school fees charged across the country.
Otubela, who is currently the deputy national president of NAPPS and also the proprietor of Lagooz Schools in Agege, Lagos, lamented that the cost of doing business in Nigeria has sky rocketed as a result of inflation, in addition to high interest rates on cost of borrowing, multiple taxes, infrastructural decays in the country resulting to bad roads and lack of power supply, among others.
These factors, he said, are affecting school administration negatively; noting that for schools to survive, some adjustments will need to be made.
“We shall continue to advocate for the establishment of Education banks by the government in the country that will make loans available to private school owners at compassionate interest rate.
“With that, you can be rest assured that the cost of running private schools will be brought down and this will reflect in school fees charged,” he said.
On the issue of multiple taxation on schools, he promised to engage government authorities in intellectual discourse to make them see reasons why multiple taxation is inimical to the growth of the private education subsector.
“Of course, we shall not hesitate to make use of legal representation to push our case if there is a need for such,” he said while assuring that he will ensure, through advocacy campaigns and internal scrutiny, that members meet up with the stipulated minimum standard of operating private schools in the country.
While he acknowledged that the role of private education sub-sector is a complementing factor of the Nigerian government’s statutory duty to provide education to her school age populace; he assured that should he emerge victorious at the polls, he will use his position to initiate collaborations and partnerships with relevant private and public sectors to generate substantial ideas for the advancement of the private education subsector.
Among his proposed activities is the introduction of unified examination termed ‘NAPPS National Unified Examination’ for NAPPS registered schools nationwide aimed at addressing the recurrent national mass failure of students in external examinations such as WAEC, JAMB and NECO, among others.
This unified exam, he said, has the potential to curb mass failure in external examination, provide assurance of quality in examination, ensure completeness of unified curriculum, assess performance of teachers as well as ensure healthy rivalry among member schools.
He, however, noted that the NAPPS national unified examination will not in any way affect the conduct of states unified examination of some states.
He also assured members of NAPPS of transparency and accountability, equity and fairness, amongst others.
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