The National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), Oyo State, has urged the state government to make education inprivate and public schools complementary and not competitive.
Mr Kayode Adeyemi, the President of NAPPS, stated this in Ibadan on Thursday while evaluating the education sector as the governor of Oyo State marks two years in office.
Adeyemi described the performance of Gov. Seyi Makinde in education as modest, “particularly in the area of free education policy that the government had adopted.
“We want to commend that and other initiatives that the government of Oyo State had taken including the recruitment of additional teachers into the public schools to lessen the burden of overstretched staff.
“This, we believe will ensure quality of education being rendered in the public schools,” he said.
Adeyemi, however, urged the state government to support the private sector with grants so that private schools can be complementary to public schools.
He noted that the contributions of private schools operators in the state had aided in the recent ranking of the state in WAEC andb NECO.
“If Oyo State is rated well in WAEC and other examinations, they are products of private schools and the private practitioners are bringing laudable contributions to the table.
“But there will be policy somersault and the free education policy may not be sustainable with the way the government is going about it by over-taxing and putting a lot of pressure on the private practitioners in the educational sector.
“This is with the intent to use funds from that particular sector to fund the free education policy which the government had embarked upon.
“What obtained in the days of Chief Obafemi Awolowo that first of all introduced free education policy was that they also give grants to the private sector of education.
“So that as the public schools are being funded and are rendering services to the poorest poor of the society, the private schools are not over levied.
“They give them grants, so that they too can put into shape things that need to be attended to.
“So that both the private and public sectors of education are on the same level and pursuing quality education and rendering services to the society,” Adeyemi said.
The NAPPS President highlighted that there would be chaos in the long run in a situation whereby private education is being stifled and overburdened with taxes and levies.
This, he said, was contrary to the original policy of the government that actually brought universal free education to the society.
