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Africcon Report:Ogun shuts 160 illegal schools
Africcon New Media – News
The Ogun State Government said on Friday in Abeokuta that it had closed 160 schools operating illegally in the state.
The Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Mr. Segun Odubela, said in a report he issued on the kick-off of the second phase of the clampdown on illegal schools, that the affected schools were shut within the last two weeks of the exercise.
He said the state government was committed to putting a stop to the menace of illegal schools “because some people who are not qualified to provide education or whose premises do not meet the required standard are insistent on operating illegal schools as a money-making venture.”
The commissioner lamented that such operators were destroying the future of children in the state because of their selfish interests.
He said, “Among the 160 illegal schools were some staffed by persons with no formal education beyond primary level. In one case, a proprietor housed children within her provisions store, regularly leaving the children to attend to customers. Others were found operating in dangerous uncompleted buildings and other unsuitable premises.”
While stating that government officials had now been deployed to confirm the registration status of every private school in the state, Odubela said those unregistered but found capable of meeting the requisite standard would be given the opportunity to regularise their status.
He, however, stressed that those considered not capable of meeting the requirements would be immediately shut down.
Odubela noted that the timing of the exercise had been planned to minimise disruption to the education of the affected children.
The commissioner said that by the end of the current term, the status of every school in the state would be known and published in order to assist parents in making informed choices for their children.
He described the first of the five cardinal programmes of the Governor Ibikunle Amosun-led administration as the provision of affordable qualitative education.
He said, “In addition to abolishing school fees and providing free education, including the distribution of free textbooks and infrastructural materials to public schools, the government has a statutory duty to regulate education being provided in the private sector.”
