Private school owners seek more roles in policy making
The Association of Community Based School Owners of Nigeria(ACOBSON) called government at all levels to make them part of their education policy making processes.
Mrs Ogochukwu Chukwuani, coordinator of ACOBSON in Anambra made the call at the inauguration of the state chapter and its executive members in Awka.
Chukwuani said that the exclusion of their members and others education stakeholders by government was responsible for the setback in the educational sector.
She said that private schools in Anambra had no recognition from the government and were not allowed to contribute to decisions in the education sector.
She said ACOBSON had put in place proactive measures for better and level playing ground for teaching and learning and that the association would will train and retrain teachers to be compliant with the 21st century standard of schools and responsibilities.
Chukwuani appealed to the state government to save private schools from high taxation and incessant harassment by ‘faceless’ agents who always invade the school premises to demand for levies.
According to her,we call on the state government and Ministry of education to look into their plight. We are ready to partner with federal, state and local governments to sustain educational policies and programmes.
“We are ready to work, to salvage the educational system and reposition the sector especially in Anambra state. Our target is to mobilise over 1000 school owners, 5000 teachers and 10,000 parents to achieve results and advance education to the next level in Anambra,” she said.
In his remark, Mr Tony Ebiziem National chairman of ACOBSON said governments and other concerned authorities did not take education seriously.
He said there was no adequate planning, infrastructures poor teacher morale as a result of non payment of salary.
“There is no state where private school proprietors are not having issues with government over high taxation.
“I however, call on proprietors, teachers and parents to join in nurturing the seed aimed at helping to tackle the challenges in education,” said.
