joshuaUHF Leader, Weneda Wali urges Rivers govt to convene education summit
… Condemns outrageous levies charged by private schools
The National Leader of Unity House Foundation (UHF), Kingsley Weneda Wali, has asked the Rivers State government to convene an education summit to bring stakeholders together and get their views on how best challenges confronting schools in the state could be effectively tackled.
According to a report from an interview published by Punch newspaper, Wali, a peace, social justice and good governance campaigner, who is ever keenly passionate about educational advancement, believes that the education summit was necessary particularly with the current economic adversity and predominance of privately-owned schools, imposing levies that do not have direct links with education.
Wali, a member of the board of Education Champions League (ECL), an Incorporated Trustee working hard to promote the culture of reading and writing among the young ones and all generations, in the interview was quoted as saying: “You talked about schools resuming on Monday and the week after. How many parents can afford fees and all the demands that come with it? You equally mentioned private schools and that’s one of the reasons I think that we need an education summit, so we can discuss all of these.
“Is the government supervising private schools enough? Have the private schools become some kind of business enterprises where premium is placed on the financial dividend that the owners of the school have?
“For example, you are running a private school, right? The parents are struggling to pay the basic fees because the public schools have been run down, so a very decent percentage of the Nigerian people send their children to private schools owned by individuals.”
Decrying the imposition of outrageous levies on parents by private schools, he further stated: “Now, what on earth will make anybody force parents to pay fees that have no direct relationship with education? For example, I own a private school and I charge parents development levy.
“You are asking me to pay a development levy for your private business after I have finished paying the school fees. You are asking parents to pay ICT fees, is ICT not part of the education curricula that I have paid for? Coding comes with all sorts of things.
“So parents not only have to deal with the issues of the basic school fees but the financial needs of the private school owners. What you find out is that the private school proprietors are passing the demands, the stress of the economy onto people who are already traumatized.”
“So, I’m thinking that maybe the time has come for the government to intervene and standardize private schools because whether we accept it or not, the reality is that a very large proportion of Nigerian people, and Rivers people patronise private schools.
“So we should look into what’s happening in the private schools, are they really doing what they are supposed to be doing or are they milking people? You know what it caused now to even fuel your car. You might say not everybody owns a car, but people move.
“The trickle-down effect of the fuel increment is that the transporters are going to increase their fares and they don’t care if you are earning minimum wage or not. So, what is the state doing, what is the Nigerian state doing, what is the government doing to moderate, if you like to use the word subsidy, to subsidize education in our state, in our country?
“So, it’s not just the normal school that is opening, parents are going to be bothering about school fees, schools are opening, beyond the school fees, we have other extra things. Sometimes you don’t pay these fees and then your children suffer.
“There’s the social component, you know, they make you stick out like a sore thumb, somebody who has not paid fees completely. I don’t understand why the private schools will be allowed to run away with blue murder.”
He insisted that such outrageous charges imposed on parents outside the basic school fees are illegal and should therefore be stopped forthwith.
“My primary concern is that anybody can do whatever he wants to do with his business. I’m not talking about establishing price control boards in schools.
“I’m saying that there should be standardization whereby schools are not allowed to do whatever they want to do because parents are already aching, guardians are, they trickle down the effect of that, once more I say that people will begin to look at the options, instead of going to school.
“How many parents are going to be able to afford the fees? What they will naturally do is that boy, girl, sorry, you can’t go to school this year in 2024.
“There should be an education summit. As much as I support the economic summit, there should equally be an education summit, because the educational sector is even facing more challenges than even the economic sector. After all, we are talking about tomorrow.
“Every day they talk about out-of-school children, now begin to imagine the number of children that will not go back to school as school resumes now and that’s sadly going to happen. So, are we moving forward?
“That’s why I am saying, and I am appealing to the government, let the Rivers State government set that example. Call for a sincere educational summit where all sectors of the community will be involved.”
