700 Kano private schools risk revocation of licences

THE Kano State Task Force on Private Schools has threatened to revoke operational certificates of about 700 private schools if by September they have not subjected themselves to screening and verification.

The task force was inaugurated three months ago with the responsibility of evaluating the operation of private schools with regards to quality of teaching and learning, structural status and remittance of revenue to government.

Chairman of the task force, Alhaji Abubakar Baba Umar, issued the threat at the presentation of certificates of credence to 91 private schools that have undergone screening and been cleared. Umar, who said the task force had earlier issued documentation form to the private schools and announced it in the media, lamented the attitude of many schools, which he alleged, have continued to disregard its warning.

Umar made it clear that despite record of 1,025 private schools obtained from the Ministry of Education, the task force was able to discover about 3,500 schools, most of them operating illegally with tax evasion .

“We would not hesitate to close down any schoolthat falls short of our requirement. Many private schools have not remitted their two years’ revenue to the government. This is unacceptable. The current administration of Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwanso will not tolerate any act of indiscipline,” he said.

On revenue recovered so far, the task force chairman said, “we have technically recovered monies 300 per cent double, in six weeks what the ministry remits in one year. You can calculate it. The ministry generates N16 million to N18 million annually or so.”

Meanwhile, Proprietor of Gate Way International Schools, Alhaji Adamu Aliyu Kiyawa, is challenging the order of the task force allegedly directing schools to remit 10 per cent of total income, aside personal income tax and workers’ PAYE deduction, to state board of internal revenue.

This, according to him, is aside the company’s income and education taxes paid to the Federal Government.

“The committee gave me a tax bill of N5,364.000. I told them this new tax is against the provisions of Taxes and Levies (list for collections) Act 2 (1998), which gives only the Federal Government the right to collect any form of education tax,” Kiyawa said.

But in his swift reaction, Umar accused the Gate Way International Schools of baseless argument. He alleged that the schools had remitted only N27,000 since 11 years of their operation.