26th September, 2016
Proprietors of some private schools have described as impressive the return of students for the 2016/2017 academic year, in spite of the economic recession bedevilling the country.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that many parents have had to change schools for their children and wards due to the jack up of fees by some schools to where they considered affordable in view of the current economic situation in the country
Mrs Ngozi Anwuchekwa, the Administrator of Vantage Academy, Gwarinpa, told NAN on Monday in Abuja that the return of students after the long vacation was impressive.
She said that the school did not increase tuition fee due to the economic hardship in the country.
Anwuchekwa explained that many of the parents returned their wards because of the high academic and moral standard of the school.
In a separate interview, Mrs Stella Ejiofor, Head Teacher, Redeemer TEAP International school, Garki, said that the school received a good number of new intakes for the session.
She, however, said that not all of them had paid their school fees which were increased a little to be able to provide instructional materials.
According to her, 450 of the over 500 students, have resumed so far.
“For us, the turnout was impressive though not all of them have paid their fees which were increased by about five percent.
“We increased the fees because of the increase in cost of learning materials; we have a standard and we want to maintain it.
“All my teachers are back to work and we are coping well.”
Ejiofor advised the government to increase workers’ salary in view of the current economic downturn which had inflicted hardship on the people.
Similarly, Mrs Ada Ogah, the Proprietress Leadway Academy, New Nyanya, said that her school had received many students withdrawn from other schools.
She attributed the development to the stable school fees in her school.
“We didn’t increase our fees because it is really tough for some parents right now.
“We are even employing new teachers because we need more hands to enable us to cope with the increasing number of students,’’ she said.