Lagos State government threatens to shut down defaulting private schools

The Lagos State government has vowed to close down any private school that fails to comply with rules guiding the education sector.

This comes after several reports indicted many private schools in their poor contributions to the education in the state.

The State Deputy Governor, Mrs. Oluranti Adebule at a stakeholders meeting with all proprietors of private schools in the state, threatened that any school that did not play by the standard rules set by the government to run the education sector would be sanctioned.

Adebule said that any private school that can not provide basic educational infrastructure that could enhance quality education in the school environment would be shown a way out.

The Deputy Governor explained that the move by the government to engage the private school owners across the state was to ensure quality education in the state.

“We want to engage private school owners so that we can improve on the standard we have set in education in Lagos state, because we don’t want to concentrate on public school alone” she said.

She told the gathering that all effort must be geared towards actualizing better educated citizens through quality education from both Public and Private Institutions in the state, stressing that any erring school will face the law.

According to her “Education is one of the sensitive sectors that needed a concerted effort to manage, its either we are in or we are out, either we are ready or not, and if you know you cannot stay on the same page with us, we will ask you to excuse us”.

Adebule who also coordinates the Education Ministry charged the private school owners to always go through due process and not to compromise on standard.

“Teachers are known for discipline, honest and straight forward. In the situation of trying to cut corner for the sake of making money, that will not be acceptable” she added’.

She however urged the private school owners to ensure that they employed the service of professionals to run their schools.

On the recent discrepancies in numbers of private schools in the state, Mrs. Adebule disclosed that government would soon embark on census of private schools in order to know how many schools both legitimate and illegally-running schools in the state.

The meeting is a quarterly-base event to review policies and check the current education status of the state.

Credit: VON