Gov. Abba Yusuf of Kano State has directed all the Commissioners reassigned in the recent cabinet reshuffle to ensure a smooth handover and assumption of duty before the close of office hours on Tuesday.

Yusuf, who issued the directive through his spokesperson, Sanusi Bature Dawakin Tofa, said the cabinet changes would take full effect during the next meeting of the State Executive Council on Wednesday.

He emphasised the need for the completion of all the transition processes before then.

“All the commissioners affected by the changes are directed to hand over their responsibilities between Monday, 16th and Tuesday, 17th December 2024,” he said.

The governor urged the members of the state executive council to redouble their efforts and uphold a strong spirit of teamwork, dedication and commitment to supporting his administration in serving the people of the state.

( NAN)

The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) recorded a 12.8 per cent reduction in Road Traffic Crashes (RTCs) between January and October 2024, compared to the same period in 2023.

FRSC Corps Marshal, Malam Shehu Mohammed, made this known in an interview on Sunday in Abuja.

Mohammed said that the decrease was a testament to the FRSC’s commitment to improving road safety in Nigeria.

He highlighted the corps’ efforts to enhance road safety and reduce the number of crashes on Nigerian roads.

He said that the Corps had set an ambitious target to reduce road traffic deaths by five per cent every year, aligning with the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety.

The FRSC boss said that the essence of statistics was to be able to improve adding that the Corps’ commitment to enhancing road safety underscored the FRSC’s dedication to protecting Nigerian lives on the roads.

“FRSC’s efforts to reduce road crashes are in line with the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety, which aimed to reduce road traffic fatalities by 50 percent by 2030.

“The number of crashes decreased from 8,654 in 2023 to 7,675 in 2024, representing a 12.8 per cent reduction.

“Also, between January and October 2023, the corps recorded 25,126 injuries and fatalities, while the same period in 2024 saw a decrease to 24,525, representing a 2.5 per cent reduction,”he said.

Mohammed said that the corps recorded an increase in deaths within the same period.

He attributed the increase in deaths to mass crashes.

He citied the Jigawa crash that claimed numerous lives and the Minna crash that claimed 50 lives saying that the Corps was working to ensure road traffic deaths were reduced to the barest minimum.

“Despite the challenges, I am optimistic about achieving the corps’ target of reducing road traffic deaths by five per cent annually because by 2030, we also want to have achieved 50 per cent reduction in line with UN decade of action,”he said.

The corps marshal explained that the FRSC was working to improve its strategies, particularly during the end-of-year patrol, to achieve the desired reduction in road crashes.

Mohammed also emphasised the importance of collaboration between the FRSC, other stakeholders, and the public in achieving the goal of reducing road crashes.

He urged Nigerians to support the FRSC’s efforts by adhering to traffic rules and regulations, avoiding reckless driving, and reporting any traffic-related incidents to the corps.

” We understand that there is the need for increase public awareness and education on road safety and the Corps is embarking on massive press conferences and town hall meetings to reach the grassroots level,”he assured.

Mohammed maintained that the FRSC would continue to engage in public enlightenment campaigns to educate motorists and other road users on the importance of road safety.

“When we work together, I believe that Nigeria can achieve a significant reduction in road crashes and make its roads safer for all users,”he said.(NAN)

Education stakeholders in Abia and Imo have expressed deep concern over the exorbitant fees charged by private schools in the country.

A cross-section of the respondents blamed the phenomenon on the lack of effective monitoring of the schools by the regulatory agencies of government at all levels.

In Abia, the people blamed the commercialisation of education by private schools on ineffective regulatory policy framework and weak monitoring mechanism by agencies of the government.

They spoke in separate interviews, saying that the onus was on government to check the unhealthy phenomenon.

They called on the State Government to evolve an effective monitoring mechanism to
ensure that private schools deliver quality service to their pupils and students.

Mr Osondu Kalu, a father of two, said that effective monitoring of private schools by the relevant authorities would help keep them in check for the purpose of quality education.

Kalu said that issues of unqualified teachers, substandard curricula, and uneven education quality had become a disturbing trend in private schools..

He said that most parents developed preference for private schools because of the failure of the government to upgrade the educational facilities in public schools.

Kalu said that the school fees in highly rated private schools are high and beyond the reach of an average Nigerian parent.

According to him, this unfortunate trend among private schools with exorbitant fees ought to be addressed by the government.

Kalu, therefore, called for effective monitoring of the private schools by the relevant authorities to ensure that the standard for quality education was maintained.

A civil servant, Mrs Dorine Ahamefule, said that some private schools were set up with the primary objective of making money rather than imparting knowledge to young minds.

Ahamefule said that the unusual focus on money instead of imparting knowledge had become a serious challenge, especially given their inability to hire qualified teachers or pay well.

She said that parents should feel the effect of the high fees they pay on their children’s academic performance.

Ahamefule also said that paying teachers well translates to building a highly motivated teachers staff and better productivity.

“However, this comes with a downside, where the fees do not always correlate with the quality of education delivered, especially when schools employ unqualified teachers.

“This practice can lead to substandard education, undermining the value parents expect from their investment.

“The employment of unqualified teachers is often a cost-saving measure, which can compromise the educational quality and outcomes.

“This scenario raises concerns about the commercialisation of education, where profit sometimes outweighs educational quality,” she said.

A disability advocate, Mr Ikenna Ebiri, urged parents and guardians not to equate high fees with high quality, saying that some affordable schools might offer quality education.

Ebiri said that in spite of the high fees, not all private schools invest adequately in infrastructure or human resources, leading to disparity in the quality of education.

He said that with the proliferation of private schools, maintaining a competitive edge, while ensuring affordability and quality, is challenging.

Ebiri, therefore, called for enhanced regulatory framework to ensure all schools meet a minimum standard in teacher qualifications, facilities, and curriculum.

He called on the government to make education less elitist, through scholarships, waivers to private schools and remodelling of public school system.

Some parents and education experts also urged the Federal and State Governments to support private schools in order to lessen the financial burden they transfer to parents.

They further called on the government to introduce free education in public schools.

They urged the government to make public schools more attractive in order to discourage parents and guardians from patronising substandard and expensive private schools.

The Chairman of Parent-Teacher Association, Holy Rosary Secondary School, Umuahia, Mr Edward Okoro, said the high operational costs contribute to exorbitant fees charged by private schools.

Okoro said that most private schools with population between 50 and 100 students might not be able to cover their expenses in running the school, including payment of teachers’ salaries.

“Government has a lot to do and one of them is to make education free in primary and secondary schools.

“If the public schools are renovated and equipped with qualified teachers, many parents will begin to patronise them, instead of taking their children and wards to private schools.

“And when that is done, the exorbitant fees by private schools will no longer be there, which might cause some of them to close down,” he said.

Also, Prof. Rose Uzoka, the Dean, College of Education, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, urged the government to subsidise private schools to check high charges.

Uzoka said that most of the private schools “pay tangible amount” of taxes to the government and needed to recover the money through school fees and other charges.

She said : “I doubt if there is any private secondary school in the South-East that charges as much as N3 million or N4 million as school fees.

“The government is not doing enough to help these private schools, but that should not be an excuse to exploit parents in the name of school fees.

“There are different ways that the government can support the private schools to lessen the burden of exorbitant school fees”.

A parent, Mr Kalu Ukpai, lamented that some of the private schools charge exorbitant fees but employ unqualified teachers, whom they pay poor salaries.

Ukpai said that the issue of high cost of education has become a serious concern, especially now that things are generally tough in the country.

“Many families are finding it extremely difficult to make ends meet.

“How then can they cope with the high school fees, especially for those with many children?

“But, I am happy for what Gov. Alex Otti is doing in the education sector now in Abia, especially with the remodeling of public schools and his plans to introduce free basic education next year.

“The governor’s move will bring back the lost glory in public schools and pull people out from the private schools,” he said.

In Imo, some private secondary school teachers lamented that they were being underpaid, saying that their salaries and other emoluments were not commensurate with their output and school fees paid by the students.

Mrs Oluchukwu Ferdinand, who holds a Higher National Diploma in Education and teaches in a private secondary school, said that her employer always referred to the HND/BSc dichotomy as his reason for underpaying his teaching staff.

Ferdinand said that the attitude explained why the proprietor employed only HND and Ordinary National Diploma holders, adding that this was affecting the teachers’ approach to their duties.

Another teacher, Miss Uchechi Okoro, said that the lack of government measures to checkmate the activities of private schools was also a factor.

Okoro said: “I’m one of the 15 teachers in the secondary school where I teach, seven are regular staff members, while eight are youth corps members, who get a paltry allowance to augment what they receive from the Federal Government.

“But because nobody checkmates these things, they just keep happening and there is little or nothing the teachers can do about it,“ she said.

She argued that changing corps members annually was affecting the students performance negatively and called on government not to allow inexperienced corps members take over the core duties of teachers as assigned in the curriculum.

A head teacher, Mr George Ojiaku, blamed the low remuneration of teachers in private schools on government’s failure to provide adequate remuneration for teachers in public schools.

Ojiaku said that since government sets the standard for the private sector, “it would be difficult to expect perfection” from the latter.

The Proprietress of Sound Foundation Academy, Emekuku, Owerri, Mrs Chinwendu Osuji, said that the location of a school determines the fees charged which, in turn, determines the remuneration of teachers.

Osuji called on government to establish modalities for equitable school fees charged by private schools. (NAN)