Over 250 Sub-standard Private Schools To Be Shut Down By Bayelsa Govt

Barring last minute change of policy, the Bayelsa State Government is set to shut down over 250 primary and secondary schools in the state over allegations that they are of low standard.

Already, the State Commissioner for Education, Jonathan Obuebite, in a chat with newsmen in Yenagoa, has disclosed that his ministry after investigation has compiled the names of the school not qualified to be private schools.

Obuebite, who decried the alarming rate of sub-standard private schools in the state, said that over half of the over 500 private schools in the state, including those own by churches will be shut down soon.

Obuebite said that the private schools were given a probation period to improve and put things in order, regretting that up until now, they had yet to do anything but were busy collecting money from the people.

According to him, in no distant time, the affected private schools would be made public to enable the people of Bayelsa to take precautionary measures.

Obuebite also said that most of those schools would be denied accreditation to write both the junior and senior  West Africa Examinations Council (WAEC) examinations and other national examinations in the state.

Hear him: “We are going to make all those unqualified schools public for Bayelsa people to know them. We will mention the names of the schools, their locations and their proprietors for the public to be guided appropriately.”

“We have a problem of proliferation of private schools. Some private schools operate in one-bedroom flat and some in a single room. We have gone round; we have investigated and we have compiled all the schools that are not qualified in the private schools sub-sector in this state.

“They (unqualified private schools) will all be published in due course. We do not want our pupils to be pitied because most of these schools I am going to deny them accreditation to write junior WAEC or any other national examinations we do in this state.”

“We don’t want our people to be victims because most of these schools, I am gong to deny them accreditation to write WAEC, junior WAEC or any national examination that we are writing in this state. We have over 500 private schools in this state and you will be surprised that about half of them which is more than 250 are going.”

“It is not just about ratifying it, you have to look at the structures, people pay for the facilities that you have, you have to look at your teachers needs, the environment, all those thing put together.

“Some will be encouraged to improve looking at what they have, the location that they are, but I tell you more than half of those schools are going down. I am not doing it in isolation, I met with them, for the very first time all the private schools operators in the state were invited for a meeting at Izonwari here”.

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