Zamfara revokes licences of 500 private schools

Licences of more than 500 private schools in Zamfara have been revoked by the state government over their inability to meet the required operational guidelines.

The state Commissioner for education, Ibrahim Abdullahi made the announcement on Tuesday, January 5 and also told newsmen that a task force will soon be inaugurated to enforce compliance.

The commissioner said; “The guidelines will have to be followed and be met by any private school proprietor before the issuance of a licence to operate."

Recounting how Governor Matawalle met a “poorly-arranged” setting on the operations of private schools, Abdullahi said proprietors at that time only needed to pay a start-up registration fee of N30,000, after which they had the freedom to operate outside the control of the state government.

He also revealed that the state’s ministry of education that oversees the operations of private schools had been upgraded for efficiency.

Abdullahi added; “At the moment, we have a draft bill which we will forward to the house of assembly that will empower the ministry of education to have control over the way the private schools are set up and operated."