Proprietors lobby for reopening of ramshackle schools in Delta

There are no fewer than 60,000 pupils in the 662 unregistered schools shut down by the Delta State Government last week.
This was no thanks to the war declared by Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State on substandard schools, having acknowledged that “education is the passport to the future and the future belongs to those that prepare for it.”
Each of the schools has nothing less than 800 to 1,000 students in their register before they were sealed.
Over 100 others were immediately shortlisted for de-registration across the three senatorial districts of the state for operating in ramshackle environment.
The 662 schools, it was gathered, secretly kicked off without qualified tutors, without due process and failed to meet the required standard of establishing a school.
Governor Uduaghan’s Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Prof. Patrick Moguobare, who sealed the schools in Asaba, the state capital, said the action became imperative, not only because the standard of education was gradually falling in the state but examination malpractices thrive in them.
Describing the affected schools as “Miracle-Centers where anything goes”, Moguobare hinted that in the next few weeks ramshackle and rickety schools, numbering 100, though registered by the state’s Ministry of Education, would be sealed.
He said, “I can assure you that the war on shoddy schools continues. We are taking the war to ram-shackled schools by next month. Schools that have registered with us but have exceeded their three years stay in their temporary site will be penalized, even as those who have moved to their permanent sites but operating under dilapidated structures will be sealed.
“Each of the 662 schools have no fewer than 800 to 1,000 students in them. So you can imagine what has become of our educational system in Nigeria. You won’t believe me if I tell you the condition we met some of the affected schools in Warri. Some share apartment with churches, that is, school opens during the week and church takes over Saturday- Sunday.”
According to him, the standard of education set by Governor Uduaghan, who, over the years, embarked on massive infrastructural upgrading of schools and their environment, cannot be brought low by the shaky private schools.
While he emphasized the stipulation of the law on establishment of schools, which he said has not changed, he said “gone are those days when proprietors and proprietresses engage officials of the ministry in bribery to cover up the mess in their schools.”
The Commissioner however doused the fear that students were stranded after the exercise, when he said: “The state has enough schools to accommodate their students.”
Meanwhile, politicians, especially in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, who are school owners across the state, have swung into intensive lobby to have their schools retained.