The Anambra and Enugu State Governments say they have no legal authority to regulate the payment of tuition fees among private schools in the state.

The two state governments disclosed this during a survey conducted by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on “exorbitant school fees paid in private secondary schools and employment of unquantified teachers”. Prof. Ngozi Chuma-Udeh, the Anambra Commissioner for Education said, “the issue of exorbitant school fees is the sole business of private school owners and we have no right to interfere; it is a competitive arena. “We have a school like the British College here, they are charging almost a million naira, while there are other private schools charging N50,000 as school fees,” she said.Chuma-Udeh said that for one’s child to attend any school, be it public or private school, depends how much the person could afford.Accordding to her, the public schools are there, if you cannot afford the private school.She said that the state was doing everything possible to ensure that the private schools in Anambra adhered to the high standard of education set by government.The Commissioner said that the minimum requirement for nursery, primary and junior secondary school teachers in the state was the Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE).She said that the senior secondary schools would require graduate teachers with Bachelor of Education (B. Ed), Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts (B.Sc/B.A), Higher National Diploma (HND), Bachelor of Arts and Post Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) and Bachelor of Science with Post Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE). Also speaking, Mr Julius Udekwe, Deputy Chairman, Association of Private School Owners in the state said that private schools under the association adhered to the government standard establishing private schools in the state.On the issue of exorbitant school fees, he said that the association was mindful of the current economic hardship faced by Nigerians, hence they tried to make school fees and other charges affordable to ensure quality education.“We don’t bill parents and guardians too much, considering the current economic hardship we are facing right now,” he said.Udekwe noted that the purpose of establishing private schools was to compete with the public schools to bring about standard.“What we do is to equate the cost with the standard of education we offer and not to turn it into money spinning business,” he said.In Enugu State, the Commissioner for Education, Prof. Ndubueze Mbah, described the high fees charged by private schools as ‘Parental Choice”.The commissioner said that the state was working hard to leave a legacy of quality and affordable education to children in Enugu State.According to him, parents can make choices of sending their children to study in any part of the world and pay any amount they want to pay.“The ministry has no power over that but what we are doing is providing free Universal Basic Education to all children in the state as Enugu has best school system in Africa through Enugu Green Smart Schools.“Even in the senior secondary school, we have abolished all fees apart from N4,500 minimum administrative fee aimed at making senior secondary school very affordable for parents and ensures that every child in the state has access to quality education,” Mbah said.He added that the state through the ministry had passed and circulated policy which reaffirmed the commitment of the state government to regulate minimum standard for the establishment and running of private schools in Enugu State.This, he said, had set out the legal requirement for obtaining approvals and licences to operate a school in the state.Mbah said the minimum requirement include the condition of facilities, safe and conducive environment for learning, teacher-pupil ratio, ensuring qualified and certified teachers by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria.“Ensuring fidelity to Nigeria curriculum, a code of conduct for teachers and students, textbooks and instructional materials are taken from the gazetted approved books by the Education Resource Centre.“In line with this, several unapproved and unlicensed schools have been shut down while the ones struggling to meet the minimum standard but showed considerable promise, have been given time to meet those standards.“The education law requires that the ministry maintain register of teachers where all the qualified and certified teachers in the state are enrolled and registered.“All these is to ensure that public, private and mission schools employ and rely on the services of qualified and well trained teachers,” the commissioner said.A parent, Mrs Blessing Ejiofor said that the high fees were worrisome, decrying that she and her husband paid through their nose to enrol their son in Junior Secondary School in a missionary School.According to her, they spent over a million naira to pay for their son’s tuition fee, exam fee, textbooks, hotel fee, laptop and others.“It is not easy but we are managing to give our child best and quality education,” she said.In Ebonyi, some private school owners under the National Association of Private Proprietors of Schools (NAPPS), in the state, said tuition and other sundry fees charged by members are moderate.A cross section of the members who spoke in separate interviews in Abakaliki, debunked claims that private school owners in the state charged exorbitant school fees.According to them, private schools in the state do not charge high fees rather the fees charged were moderate fees to cover the costs of operating the school, including teachers salaries, facilities, and other expenses. They noted that unlike public schools that received funding from the government, private schools were self-funded and relied on the school fees and sundry fees to pay staff salaries and meet other operational costs.They said: “Private schools are responsible for paying their own teachers and other staff, unlike public schools which are funded by the government.“Private schools need to pay for facilities and maintenance and cover the costs of educational programmes, classroom materials, technology infrastructure, and extracurricular activities.”Mr Paul Ogwale, a private school owner in Abakaliki said that proprietors of private schools struggle to pay salaries of their staff and other running costs due to high cost of maintaining the schools since they were not funded by the government.He said that only a few of the private secondary schools, especially those in the state capital charged school fees up to N50,000 stressing that most of the private schools collected between N25,000 and N30,000 per term as school fees.“The income level of average family in the state is very low and fees are charged so that parents will be able to afford them.“In Ebonyi, most private school owners struggle to pay staff salaries and still meet up with other current and capital expenditures due to low income generation by the schools.“School business takes a long period for it to start yielding the expected return on investment (RoI) which is why most of the schools are closing down because they cannot afford what it takes to remain afloat,” Ogwale said.He emphasised that the association placed much premium on quality, therefore maintaining strict monitoring and supervision to ensure that qualified teachers were engaged to teach the children.“In terms of school fees, Ebonyi is where you can get the best without compromising quality and standards of teaching and learning.“The fees are affordable; as operational costs rise, private schools may be compelled to increase tuition fees to sustain their operations,” he added.A teacher in Holy Ghost Foundation Schools (HGFS), in Abakaliki, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the school ranked one of the best in terms of academic excellence and infrastructure but remained the least expensive.It said that the school was founded in 1975 and had produced several national and international personalities yet the school fees when compared with its contemporaries in other states remained among the least expensive.“The cost of admission including school fees and other service charges is less than N50, 000 except the student is in examination class transferring from other school then he or she will be expected to pay for the examination fees,” the source said.Mr Ignatius Ugbala, another school proprietor said that the service rendered by private schools were far more than the fees paid by parents for their children to acquire quality education.“We engage qualified staff, ensure strict supervision of staff and provide needed instructional materials to enable the teachers to impact practical knowledge to the students,” Ugbala said.Meanwhile, Mr Raymond Onwe, a parent, whose three children are in some of the private schools, said that he preferred private schools to public school due to the strict supervision of teaching and other academic activities unlike in public schools.” I don’t think the amount charged by private schools in the state are that expensive given the quality of service they render and the complementary role the private schools make in provision of quality education.“Yes, I have my three children in private schools and I think having them their is the best decision because they receive good and quality teaching,” Onwe said.He called on governments at all levels to prioritise education sector stressing that every development and progress a society could make was tied to its educational standard. (NAN)