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As parents grapple with the escalating rise in school fees, a school in Abuja, the nation’s capital, is charging N100 per day for school fees, The Guardian reports.
Located in Kuje on the outskirts of Abuja, the KNOwledge and Skills (KNOSK) School allows parents to pay N100 per day for school fees, while it relies on support from corporate organisations, donor agencies, philanthropists, and individual sponsors to augment the cost of school fees, teaching and non-teaching staff, educational materials, among others.
Our correspondent, who took an exclusive tour of the facility, reports that with just N100/25 cents a-day school fees, students receive free books, uniforms, sportswear, daily lunch, and sanitary pads monthly for the girls.
In an exclusive chat with The Guardian, the co-founder of the school, Kingsley Bangwell, said the institution was designed for children from low-income families earning below the Minimum Wage.
To prevent exploitation and ensure that only deserving students benefit, the co-founder said the school conducts home visits to verify the financial status of prospective students’ families, followed by a competitive entrance examination.
“We established the KNOSK N100 a-day school because we wanted to contribute to one of Nigeria’s prolonged problems, which is that millions of Nigerian children are not going to school primarily because of poverty,” he said. “What we do is that we look for what we call ‘Education Angels.’ They are people we present these children to and their history and ask them to sponsor or co-sponsor these children,” he said.
Approved by the Federal Ministry of Education (Department of Quality Assurance) and registered as KNOSK Charity Education Initiative, The Guardian gathered that the secondary school, which commenced operations in September 2019 with 30 students, has grown to a population of 170.
It was also gathered that its pioneer students are expected to write next year’s Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE).