Harsh Economy: Private School Owners Losing Students To Public Schools -NAPPS Chairperson

As the economy continues to bite harder, private school owners in the country have lamented that they are now losing many of their students to public schools.

Speaking during an interview with THE WHISTLER, the Chairperson, National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), Federal Capital Territory (FCT) chapter, Mrs Ruth Agboola, stated that many parents who cannot keep up with payment of school fees have withdrawn their children from school.

She stated that even before the removal of fuel subsidy, some schools have been running at a loss, adding that with the removal, some private schools are barely surviving while others have closed down.

“The subsidy removal has tripled and multiplied our financial situation in a down turn manner. This has led to parents withdrawing their children from the private schools and taking them to public schools because the subsidy removal affected them as well.

“Government has not increased civil servants’ salaries. Since there is no increase in salary, nothing has trickled down to traders. There is a high cost of foodstuff because of the high cost of transporting the food from the rural area to town due to the subsidy removal.

“So, if a parent cannot adequately feed the children, he or she doesn’t think that their children should remain in private school,” she said.

She added that some school owners have resorted to taking bank loans to survive but lamented that the loans come with high interest rates between 29 to 30 per cent which has affected their business adversely.

Also speaking, proprietress of MackyTender Lilies International in Aba, Abia State, Mrs Lilian Mawokwe lamented that about 50 students in her school are at home because they could not pay their school fees.

Mawokwe who stated that the school fee was as low as N10,000 due to the area the school was located, added that parents were still unable to pay.

“Many were owing for the last term and this term is about to round up and there is still no hope. Things are hard. Parents have to feed their children first before thinking of going to school. It is when somebody eats, he will now think of going to school,” she said.

She decried the many fees and levies private schools have to remit to the government, adding that she had to borrow money to pay for her renewal fee, a fee that private schools in the area pay annually to the government.

“If your school is approved by the government, you have to pay the renewal fee or you might be closed down. We were paying N55,000 before, but now it is N90,000,” she explained.

Another proprietor, who gave his name as Mr Okpuozor C, lamented the low intake of students in his school this term compared to other terms, adding that with the fuel subsidy removal, managing the school has become very expensive.

Okpuozor who is the owner of Community Quality School, Ogbole Ogume, Delta State added that even with the decrease of new intake, schools had to find a way to increase the salaries of teachers so as to retain them because according to him, “better the devil you know, than the angel you don’t know.”