SCHOOL APPROVAL & LICENSING
Approval to open and run a school
No school may open in Kano State without the written approval of the Ministry. Approvals are processed by the Kano State Private And Voluntary Institute, run for a term of three years and are inspected every session.
Who must apply
Every fee-paying, community, mission and voluntary school operating in Kano State holds an approval issued under the Kano State Education Law, Cap. 47, and is licensed by the Kano State Private And Voluntary Institute at PVIB Secretariat, Farm Centre, Tarauni, Kano. That applies to a nursery of twenty children as much as to a secondary school of two thousand, and it applies from the day the school first takes a pupil, not from the day it becomes profitable.
An approval is granted for a named proprietor, at a named site, for named levels of education. It does not travel. Selling the school, moving it to another site, adding a secondary section to a primary school, opening a second stream or changing the name on the gate each requires a fresh application before the change is made, not after.
A school teaching without an approval is an illegal school. Its pupils cannot be entered for the Basic Education Certificate Examination or presented to WAEC or NECO through a State centre, its records carry no weight when a child transfers, and the Ministry may close it and prosecute the proprietor. Approximately 300 schools currently hold an approval, and the register is published under Schools.
The seven applications
Choose the one that matches what you are doing. Each is filed on the same form and moves through the same pipeline.
New school approval
₦150,000
A school that has not operated before, or one operating without an approval and now regularising. Provisional approval first, full approval after a satisfactory inspection in the second year.
Approval renewal
₦85,000
Filed in the last term of the three-year term. A renewal filed late attracts a surcharge of ₦25,000 and the school may not enrol a new class until it is granted.
Change of proprietorship
₦75,000
Sale, inheritance, transfer to a trust or a change in the controlling members of a company. The incoming proprietor is screened as though the application were new.
Change of name
₦25,000
Any change to the name on the signboard, the letterhead or the certificate a pupil is given. The old name is retired in the register and both names are recorded against the school code.
Upgrade of level
₦90,000
Adding junior secondary to a primary school, or senior secondary to a junior school. Approval depends on laboratories, a library and subject-qualified teachers for the level being added.
Additional stream
₦60,000
A second arm of an existing class, or a science, commercial or technical stream in a senior school. Assessed against classroom space, furniture and the pupil-teacher ratio.
Closure
No charge
A school closing for any reason files a closure application one full term before the last day, so that every pupil is placed in another school and every record is surrendered to the Institute.
What it costs and how long it takes
The approval term is three years. The annual inspection fee falls due at the start of every session, whatever year of the term the school is in.
| Item | Amount | When it is due | Turnaround |
|---|---|---|---|
| Application fee, new approval | ₦150,000 | On submission | 45 working days |
| Annual inspection fee | ₦45,000 | First term of each session | 21 working days |
| Approval renewal, three-yearly | ₦85,000 | Last term of the approval term | 30 working days |
| Change of proprietorship | ₦75,000 | Before the change takes effect | 30 working days |
| Upgrade of level | ₦90,000 | Before the new level opens | 45 working days |
| Additional stream | ₦60,000 | Before the stream opens | 21 working days |
| Change of name | ₦25,000 | Before the name is used | 14 working days |
| Late renewal surcharge | ₦25,000 | Where a renewal is filed after expiry | Added to the renewal |
| Closure | No charge | One term before the last day | 30 working days |
Documents required
Upload every item. An application missing any one of them is returned unassessed, with the missing item named.
- Certificate of incorporation, or the registration certificate of the community, mission or voluntary body owning the school.
- Site plan of the premises, with the building approval issued by the planning authority for the local government area.
- Land title: certificate of occupancy, a registered deed of assignment, or a registered lease of not less than five years.
- Staff list with the qualification of each teacher and, for every teaching post, the TRCN number in the form TRCN/KN/NNNNNN.
- The fee schedule the school proposes to charge, by class and by term, including every levy.
- The proposed curriculum, showing the subjects at each class against the national curriculum for the level.
- Health and safety certificate from the local government environmental health office, dated within the last twelve months.
- Evidence of a water source and of separate toilet facilities for boys and for girls.
- Two passport photographs and a means of identification for the proprietor, and for each director where the owner is a company.
- Curriculum vitae and credentials of the proposed head teacher or principal, who must hold a teaching qualification and a current licence.
The pipeline, stage by stage
Your account shows which of these five stages your application has reached, and the date it must leave that stage by.
Submitted
The form and every document are in and the application fee has been paid. A reference of the form APP/2026/00184 is issued. Nothing is assessed until the file is complete, so check the document list before you submit.
Under Review
A licensing officer at the Institute checks the incorporation, the land title, the building approval, the staff list against the teachers register and the proposed fees against the published ceilings. Queries are raised once, in a single letter, and you have 14 days to answer.
Inspection Visit
A team of three visits the premises and scores the school against the twelve statutory criteria. The visit is announced by at least seven days. The proprietor or head teacher must be present, and the classrooms, toilets, water point and any laboratory must be open.
Approved
The Institute grants provisional approval where the school is safe, staffed and taught but still building out, and full approval where every criterion is met. Provisional approval runs for one year and is converted after a satisfactory second inspection.
Licence Issued
The licence carries the school code in the form KN/MUN/PRV/0184, the approved levels, the approved streams and the expiry date, and the school appears in the published register within five working days. Display the licence in the school office.
Rejected
A rejection names every ground in writing. The premises may be unsafe, the title defective, the teachers unregistered or the proprietor previously sanctioned. You may correct the grounds and re-apply at half the application fee within six months, or appeal to the Permanent Secretary within 30 days.
The legal basis
Approval and licensing sit on the Kano State Education Law, Cap. 47, which makes it an offence to establish or run a school in the State without the written approval of the Commissioner, and on the regulations made under it, which vest the day-to-day function in the Kano State Private And Voluntary Institute. The standards a school is measured against come from the National Policy on Education and from the minimum standards for basic education issued under the Universal Basic Education Act, 2004.
The Institute may vary, suspend or revoke an approval. Suspension follows a verdict of Inadequate that is not corrected within the period given, an unsafe building, an unlawful charge, an examination malpractice finding or the employment of unregistered teachers after notice. Revocation follows a repeated or a serious breach. A school under sanction keeps its pupils: the Ministry places them elsewhere before the gates close.
A proprietor who disagrees with a decision of the Institute appeals in writing to the Permanent Secretary within 30 days, and from there to the Honourable Commissioner. An appeal does not suspend a closure order made on grounds of safety.
Questions proprietors ask
May I begin teaching while the application is being considered?
What is the difference between provisional and full approval?
I bought a school that already has an approval. Am I covered?
Do my teachers all have to be registered?
Who sets the fees I may charge?
How much notice is given for an inspection?
What happens to my pupils if my approval is revoked?
Three traps that cost proprietors money
Nobody is authorised to speed up an approval. There is no fast lane, no facilitation fee and no approved consultant. Every application is worked in the order it is completed, and money paid to an individual buys nothing but a longer delay.
A renewal filed after the approval has expired attracts a surcharge of ₦25,000 and bars the school from enrolling a new class until it is granted. The Ministry notifies the registered contact 60, 30, 14, 7 and 1 days before expiry, so keep the phone number and the email address on your file current.
A building approval and a health and safety certificate are issued by other authorities and take time of their own. Begin them before you begin this application, not after a query letter names them.
Apply for a school approval
Create an account, complete the form once, and track the file through all five stages. The register of approved schools is public, and so is the inspection report of every school on it.