The national shame called private schools

Every year, Nigerians, especially the elite, pay out hundreds of billions of Naira as fees to schools owned and operated by individuals, corporate organisations and foreign missions that collude with local businesses as well as proprietors of churches in order that their children and wards may receive quality education

while the children and wards of a greater majority of the people are left at the mercy of government schools that are poorly or merely funded and therefore breeding grounds for quasi standard education.

The menace of private schools in the country which some years back mostly afflicted parents whose children could not access admission into government universities has now permeated all levels of education including secondary, primary, nursery and even pre-nursery and crèches with parents paying through their noses in the name of seeking quality education in conducive environments.

In most parts of the world, children are educated in schools built and operated by government with fees that are very affordable.

Many countries even make schooling at all levels free of charge to underscore the importance they attach to education of their citizens, knowing that an educated population is the basic human resource to harness future leaders as well as engender societal development and growth.

In Europe, America and some other countries, attending private school is a luxury afforded by the rich but in Nigeria, even the lowest income earners now send their children to private schools because that is where they can get quality education.

A peep into the files of some private schools in the country show that many of them charge as huge as N5million per session as is the case with American International School, Lagos where students pay a total of N5.5million a year, followed closely by Grange High School, Lagos where parents are made to cough out N4.5million annually.

Other very high fees collecting schools in Nigeria are American International School Abuja N4.3million, Lekki British International School Lagos N4million, Dowen Collage Lekki N2million, Cherryfield College Jikwoyi Abuja N1.7million, Chrisland College Ikeja N2million, Atlantic Hall Epe Lagos N2.7million, Corona Secondary School Agbara N2.25million, Hillcrest School Jos N2.26million and Loyola Jesuit College Abuja N2.8million for a session.

There are also Whiteplains British School Abuja N1.6million, Day Waterman College Abeokuta N3.7million, Meadow Hall International School Lagos N3million and Green Springs School Lagos N3.185million among many others located in different cities and towns across Nigeria. The list is endless.

One of the most disturbing aspect of this national malaise is that most of these private schools are owned by those who are either occupying or have occupied top government positions in the country where they were supposed to be responsible for the crafting and implementation of policies and programmes that would engender quality public education.

Those that own the schools include former and serving state governors, ministers and advisers, commissioners, permanent secretaries and directors both at national and state levels as well as pastors and bishops.

While the rich send their children to the high paying private schools, public schools are left to rot away with dilapidated structures and half baked teachers many of who cannot spell or write their names when asked to.

Year in year out, Federal and states government budget billions of Naira for the education sector but large chunk of the monies end up inside the personal coffers of these public officers with little fraction spent on target.

This development is quite regrettable when considered side by side the fact that most of Nigerian elite and owners of the private schools that are above the age of 60 were educated free of charge in schools that were built by government and religious missions.

But instead of using the exalted positions they occupy to replicate the positive development by investing in public schools for the good of the society, they rather divert public resources into building private schools in order to enrich themselves and by so doing, stifle the public schools.

The worst culprits are pastors and other religious leaders who build schools with monies voluntarily donated by members in the name of tithe and offering yet charge fees that are so exorbitant that their members who contributed the monies cannot afford to send their children and wards to the schools.

While the private schools charge high fees, research has proved that not all of them are able to give quality education to students and pupils of the schools.

To cover up their deficiencies and retain the loyalty of parents, some of the schools ensure that students do not fail or repeat classes by awarding them unearned marks as well as helping them to cheat during external exams like WAEC, NECO and JAMB thereby producing mediocre graduates at the end of the day.

It is for the same reason that many students that finished from private schools cannot cope with academic competitions when they get to the university and therefore resort to joining cult groups as a cover up to their inadequacies.

It is high time therefore that Federal Government stepped in to check the excesses of the anomaly called private schools.

To achieve that, there is the need to reform public schools in such a way that they can compete with private schools so that patronising them becomes luxury rather than last resort, the way and manner it is in other countries.

It should also concern government that private schools in Nigeria make claims that they operate either British or American curriculum and use that as means to exploit parents as if we should give them standing ovation for brandishing such colonial mentality and inferiority complex.

How many schools in other countries are teaching their students with Nigerian curriculum?

It is the way we made our bed that we lay on them. The time to begin serious reforms in the education sector is now and that should go beyond mere ‘declaration of state of emergency,’ since solid foundation in the education sector is the bedrock of the change we need, if Nigeria will ever be great again.

Email: noelanosike@gmail.com Mobile number: 08034530189 (sms only)