By Adedapo Adesanya
The Kano State Government has urged proprietors of private schools to reduce school fees by 25 and 30 per cent for the 2019/2020 third term academic session.
The state’s Commissioner for Education, Mr Sanusi Kiru, made this known in a statement signed by Mr Aliyu Yusuf, the Public Relations Officer of the ministry on Thursday in Kano.
Mr Kiru said the ministry would consider the cancellation of the Third Term session if the school proprietors remained adamant to reduce the fees.
He said the measure was imperative in view of the economic realities brought by the COVID-19 pandemic which had rendered things difficult.
He said: “Two parallel ad-hoc committees were constituted to discuss with proprietors of the schools on the downward review of the fees as done in some states.
“Failure to do so; the ministry will cancel the Third Term session, and the academic calendar will commence with a new session in January 2021.
“Proprietors of private schools should appreciate the support they enjoyed from the state government and extend the same gesture to the good people of the state.”
The Commissioner said the ministry had fixed November 1 dateline for the schools to comply, warning that: “the ministry will be left with no option than to take such a revolutionary decision in the public interest.”
So far, according to data from the Nigeria Centre for Diseases Control (NCDC), Kano has recorded 1,743 cases out of the 62,224 cases in the country with recovery rate at 96.5 per cent (1,682) with 54 deaths.
Modupe Gbadeyanka