By Kehinde Oluwatayo
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State President Of National Association Of Proprietors Of Private Schools Ondo State, Mr. Ijidakinro Derick has said that majority of members of his association could not access the Federal Government’s COVID-19 survival fund due to some stringent measures attached to it.
Ijidakinro while speaking with The Hope described the initiative as a welcome one and however said not up to five percent of members of his association could register before it closed.
According to him, most private schools in the state do not have the Corporate Affairs Commission CAC registration which was a prerequisite for registration in the first stage out of the three stages required to access the fund.
“Most private schools only have state government’s approval and not CAC registration and they are requesting for it. So it is a hindrance for majority of us”, he said.
He added that logging into the site which opened on September 21 and closed on September 25 for the first stage was not easy saying most school owners could not register before it closed.
According to Ijidakinro, the second stage which will commence on October 1 also has another hindrance that will make it difficult for the few that have logged in to continue with the process.
“Even at the second stage, they are requesting for the bank statement of the schools, staff, their BVN and the schedule with which they pay their staff which means that only those schools that pay their staff through the bank are qualified to continue with the process at that stage”, he explained.
He said for those who will eventually sailed through, only 10 out of their staff would be paid no matter the number they have.
While stating that the process is too difficult, he opined that Federal Government could go through the state government to reach the private schools or reach them through their association instead of the stringent measures attached to the fund.
He appealed to the state government to at least release the academic calendar if it is not ready to open school now adding that proprietors of private schools are the worst hit by the effect of the pandemic.
