Some school owners in Lagos State have decided to obey the Following a directive to private schools operators in Lagos State to register their institutions irrespective of their accreditation status, about 6,083 schools have now been registered to be operating in the state.
Records of the staff of the Education Information Management System undertaking the exercise in the six education districts show that districts 1&11 have 1587 and 1089, districts 111&1V have 676 and 1070, while districts V&VI have 1038 and 623schools respectively.
Commenting on the development during a tour of the districts to monitor the level of compliance with the exercise, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Mr. Adesina Odeyemi, said he was not satisfied with the response and the attitude of people waiting till the last minute before making efforts to comply with directives.
Explaining the motive of the State Government for issuing the directive, Odeyemi noted that the exercise was strictly meant to gather data that will avail government the opportunity to know all the education service providers in the State.
He said that the data would also enable government representatives to visit and monitor what the schools were doing to ensure that it was in line with the quality assurance regulation of schools below tertiary level.
He implored proprietors who were yet to take advantage of the opportunity to do so and reassured that the government was not interested in closing down schools but to help them grow.
Odeyemi warned that those who failed to register would have inadvertently revealed to the government that they harbour other motives, and as such government may have no option but to come down hard on those who refuse to comply with the directive.
Many proprietors, who spoke in the various districts, pleaded with the State Government to extend the deadline to enable their other colleagues participate in the exercise.
Mr. Fajana Niyi was of the opinion that many proprietors had travelled out of town and as such could not register as their school documents resided with them.
Another operator, Mrs. Amosu said the increase in the registration was because of the renewed confidence that the people reposed in the exercise following clarifications that it was not tax-propelled or an attempt to increase the annual fees of the schools.
