A deadlock has been reached between the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) and owners of private schools in Abuja over the 5% proposed tax on tuition fees for students.
It is now left to see who will blink first as proprietors of the schools on Monday “outrightly rejected the proposal in its entirety due to the harsh economic situation in the country,” a source said.
It was gathered that the association of the proprietors of schools in the seat of power vowed to “fight the battle to the end.”
“Government should allow private schools to breathe. We are being suffocated by heavy tax burdens, insecurity, harsh economic environment which has unduly skyrocketed the cost of running a private school and parents’ inability to pay school fees,” a memo to members said.
It was gathered that school owners reiterated that owning and running schools is a social service venture that needs government support rather than indiscriminate taxes from various government quarters.
But the meeting wasn’t without its sideshow with the department of quality assurance (DQA) expressing dismay at how details of its previous meeting with the leadership of the association of proprietors leaked to the media.
“They expressed their displeasure on an online abusive media publication targeted at FCTA for allegedly proposing a 5% of tuition per child termly payment as DQA annual dues even when the discussion is not yet concluded.
“They frowned at how the news media got a hint of something that is still at a proposal and discussion level and suspected an insider involvement.
“NAPPS FCT President cleared their suspicion by denying our involvement in the said publication.
“They requested that we – Abuja Joint Private Schools Associations place a disclaimer on the publication but our FCT President on behalf of the Joint Association declined claiming that since we didn’t sponsor the publication and since they didn’t mention us in the publication, it is needless for us to join issues with the publisher by placing a disclaimer on the said publication.
The Secretary of the Education Secretariat in Abuja (equivalent of a state commissioner of education) was absent at Monday’s meeting, but DQA Director promised to brief him.
Everyday.ng had broken the news of the proposal by the authorities in Abuja’s department of education to charge a 5% tax on tuition fees for students in private schools.
The infuriating proposal to proprietors, Everyday.ng reported, was bound to set off anger in residents bogged down by the harsh economic terrain, worsened since President Bola Tinubu took over the reins of power seven months ago.
The story became the talk of the town after the leakage of the memo of the meeting between school proprietors and officials of the education secretariat.
The memo tagged, IMPORTANT INFORMATION TO ALL PRIVATE SCHOOLS, read:
“Good morning, noble colleagues. You might have heard that we have been holding a series of meetings with FCTA Education Secretariat and other Private School Assiciations on a proposed new system of charging DQA annual dues.
“Below is the brief for your information and reactions:
1. Education Secretariat and DQA (department of quality assirance) are proposing a new system of charging private schools annual dues as against the current system that sees schools of different categories pay fixed amounts to DQA annually between N75,000 and N300,000 per annum.
The new system is that they will now charge 5% of the tuition fee per child every term. What this means is that if your tuition fee is N200,000 termly, you will pay N10,000 per child multiplied by the number of school children in your school. For instance, if you have 300 pupils, you will pay N10,000 x 300, which gives N3,000,000 per term and N9,000,000 per annum as against N250,000 such school is currently paying as annual DQA levy.
2. The last meeting we had with the Education Secretary, some of us demanded the total cancellation of such the proposed policy, and the suggestion did not go down well with the Education Secretary.
He said he had expected us to appeal for a reduction from 5% rather than an outright cancellation of the policy. He then requested that another meeting be held next week between us (Abuja Joint Private School Associations) and Education Secretariat.
3. Before the proposed next meeting, we, the representatives of the Abuja Joint Private Schools Association, met yesterday … and came up with some resolutions as will be posted shortly.
Government officials remained dodgy as the proprietors were considering a mobilisation exercise to bring residents into the loop of protests.
Lately, the Federal Capital Territory Authority (FCTA) has unleashed a barrage of income generating exercises that has been raising the temperament of residents.
One of such is the increase of official fees to procure land, and pay others fees.
Everyday.ng further reports that the reaction from members of the proprietors association has been fast and furious, as captured below and sent to our reporter. They are reproduced below:
● Only wicked,irresponsible and unreasonable hearts would have this idea in a time like this. It is very unfair and should be resisted please.
● This is just too much to handle but God in his infinite wisdom will grant our leaders the best possible way to go about it and a successful outcome.
We outrightly reject such an unbelievable and dangerous weapon used only against the private education sector.
It’s high time we stood firm against any form of discrimination and oppression from our supposed education ministry.
May God fight for us????
● “5% per child per term tuition fee as annual FCT Education Secretariat/DQA due”. Pls throw some light on this DQA. Is this an institution of govt? Do they receive salaries n subvention from govt? What value does this body add to school owners? Do we need them? The annual dues of #75k we duly pay them are now inadequate. On no condition will a kobo be added to the annual due! Why are these institutions bent on the strangulation of private schools! Why can’t we go to court to stop these i
● These people are just criminals. I want to believe leadership has been changed and the new people are coming with a devise to make money. The dues we have been paying , what have they done with it? What support has DQA given to us?
They want to get 5% from our revenue but what happens to our costs of running the school? They are now shareholders or what? Even shareholders share from losses! Do they even care about the education in Nigeria? Private schools are social enterprises!
To think that we have been struggling to put our schools together amidst this economic situation is worrisome and frustrating! Or they expect us to transfer the burden on the parents who are already struggling to pay? I still can’t get it. They are government agency for God’s sake, they should be more concerned about social benefits!
I think we need to call them out as someone suggested!
● What is the basis of such a charge. They just do things arbitrarily and only end up mismanaging the revenue. I am not sure they have a clue what schools go through each time fees are increased. They should not even go there oo!