From Desmond Mgboh, Kano
The relationship between Kano State government and most proprietors of private and voluntary institutions in the state has continued to go cold with the prohibition of selected textbooks from being used in the state
Recently, the state government and operators of private schools have been clashing over some policies, including the revocation/revalidation of the licences of private schools as well as the imposition of an unrealistic tax by the government.
The proprietors have equally faulted the recurrent disruptions of academic calendar as a result of too many short-noticed holidays as well as a directive barring them from increasing their school fees despite the galloping inflation in the country.
Saturday Sun gathered their latest concern followed a directive by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Private and Voluntary Institutions prohibiting some text books from being used for instructional purposes in the state. The announcement, signed by Hamisu Mohammed , the Director of Planning Research and Statistics, alleged that the listed text books contained inappropriate and sexually explicit contents.
However, a leading school proprietor, who pleaded anonymity, told Saturday Sun that, “Irrespective of the allegations against the affected textbooks for which we are not in the best position to defend, we are simply frightened by the level of encroachment into our “privateness” by the Special Adviser to the Governor, Baba Abubakar Umar.
“The idea that you demand an unrealistic tax and then come behind to put a ceiling on the fees we charge; the fact that you seek to determine the textbooks we use as instructional materials, not to talk of too many public holidays…. All of these are not sitting well with a majority of our members.
“If the state government is a good manager of schools, the current state of Kano’s public schools is public knowledge,” he said, while adding that these interferences were likely to negatively affect the outcomes of these private schools and hurt the interest of education in the state.
In the meantime, Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), a Muslim advocacy group in the state, has lauded the state government for the prohibition of the said instructional materials from use in the state.
A statement by its Chairman in Kano State, Hassan Sani Indabawa, Friday, said that the decision by the government to prohibit these textbooks had come at the right time.