The proliferation of exploitative private schools, charging exorbitant school fees and employing unqualified teachers, among other sharp practices, has been identified as a threat to the nation’s standard of education.
In a survey carried out on Tuesday in Ibadan, Abeokuta and Ilorin, stakeholders in the education sector called for multiple intervention strategies to arrest the situation.
The respondents believed governments at all levels should lead the rescue mission by providing effective regulatory frameworks to guide schools’ operations and discourage the sector’s identified lapses.
Julius Ademokoya of the Special Education Department, University of Ibadan, challenged the government to ensure tighter monitoring of tertiary institutions.
According to him, the government should know if private tertiary schools have what it takes to employ quality lecturers who can positively impact their students.
“If the federal government refuses to take drastic action now, Nigeria’s education will be worse than we have within the next five years,” he said.
Mr Ademokoya expressed sadness that government-owned schools were also guilty of exorbitant fees, accommodation, and other unnecessary charges.
“What is even worrisome is what they now call ‘acceptance fees’ by the government and privately-owned schools. As if that is not enough, accommodation fees in some private schools are as high as N300,000 to N400,000, and short-distant intra-campus transportation may cost nothing less than N500 per student,” he said.
A parent, Aishat Kamaldeen, described the situation whereby private schools charge exorbitantly only to employ unqualified teachers, paying them meagre salaries, as a betrayal of trust.
She said the same thing applied to institutions collecting expensive boarding school fees and not feeding the boarding students well.
According to Ms Kamaldeen, parents enro their wards in private schools because they want the best and trust school owners to justify the fees by providing quality education.
She, however, regretted the disappointing experiences of most parents, seeing a situation that could negatively affect the nation’s standard of education if not attended to.
She encouraged parents to promptly address such developments in Parent Teacher Association (PTA) meetings or other available avenues.
The proprietor of Al-Hiklas Group of Schools, Ojoo, Ibadan, Tajudeen Omidokun, affirmed that private school owners must strive to earn parents’ trust by providing the required standards.
Mr Omidokun warned that schools charging expensive fees and prioritising profitmaking over providing required education standards would eventually lose parents’ trust.
According to him, this will lead to the parents withdrawing their children from such schools, and with time, the schools will begin to lose relevance in society.
Meanwhile, another parent, Rosemary Adeleke, said with the country’s developmental challenge taking its toll on public education, more parents are finding solace in private schools.
She traced the exploitation of parents by private school owners to the inability of the government to match the growing demand for quality education with human resources and infrastructural development.
According to her, many private schools have derailed their primary goal of complementing public education, noting the unchecked issues of exorbitant school fees and regular upward review of fees.
Ms Adeleke criticised the situation whereby some private schools extort parents in the name of school fees while not providing quality service to complement the fees. She said this had forced many parents to prefer low-cost private schools to meet their wards’ educational demands.
A civil servant, Kayode Adebiyi, condemned the proliferation of substandard schools without proper checks by education ministries and relevant government agencies.
He lamented that many substandard private schools put children in unsafe buildings and classrooms, not minding that such buildings were not originally designed or conducive for academic purposes.
“The use of unqualified teachers and administrative staff is another area to look at, as well as inadequate provision of infrastructural facilities and examination malpractice.
“These are some issues that are retarding or staining the good efforts of few private institutions, and these issues need to be addressed to improve the performances of private schools in Nigeria,” said Mr Adebiyi.
A school proprietor in Ibadan, Bimbo Amole, says the matter should concern families, communities and governments at all levels.
She alleged that some past governments helplessly watched public structures and institutions collapse, leaving some others in a dangerous state of coma with little or no hope of being revived.
Ms Amole, who commended the roles of private schools in rescuing the battered image of education, said much still needed to be done.
“Private schools are known to be the best in restoring and sustaining discipline among staff and students, not only because they have the willpower to do so, but also due to the fact that they will not want their investment to collapse. Also, there is effective monitoring and supervision of academic activities because the presence of the owner or the representative is regularly felt,” she said.
A director of the Oyo State Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Abideen Olanrewaju, said the ministry has standard procedures for regulating private schools’ operations in the state.
According to Mr Olanrewaju, the government monitors the schools to ensure they operate in line with the benchmark minimum academic standards that guarantee quality educational service delivery.
He said the ministry’s field officers and Local Education Inspectors across the 33 local government areas engage in the monitoring to certify compliance with government policies.
The director says the state chapter of the Association of Private School Owners of Nigeria (APSON) partners with the ministry to effectively monitor the existing private schools.
He said some private schools operating without authorisation, charging exorbitant school fees, and using unqualified teachers, among other activities against standard rules and regulations, had been sanctioned accordingly.
Mr Olanrewaju said the government would never bend the rules but rather adhere to already established education standards.
In Abeokuta, a parent, Jude Okonkwo, said he preferred his children in private schools because of the assumed poor standard and quality of education in public schools.
However, Mr Okonkwo, who did not give the number of his children, said he had forcefully withdrawn some of them from private schools because of unaffordable school fees.
Another parent, Hakeem Jimoh, said his children had been sent back home at least five times since school resumed in September over non-payment of school fees.
“This is embarrassing to me and especially, my children; it has affected them psychologically as other students look down on them in school,” he said.
Mr Jimoh blamed the situation on the insensitivity and selfishness of school owners for always prioritising profits over other considerations.
The secretary of the Nigeria Union of Teachers in Ogun, Samson Oyelere, regretted that the exorbitant fees did not reflect the standards and quality of education provided for students. He noted that many of the schools would go on to employ unqualified teachers, whom they pay meagre salaries to maximise profits.
“It is worrisome that significant private school teachers lack the requisite qualifications, particularly the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) licence,” Mr Oyelere said.
Meanwhile, the chairman of NAPPS, Abeokuta branch, Sipeolu Rowland, blamed the hike in school fees on the general downturn of the economy. According to him, prices of goods and services have continued to soar.
He added that multiple taxations had compounded the challenges, making school administration capital-intensive as proprietors bear unnecessary costs.
Mr Rowland listed the taxes as registration fees, renewal fees, mobile signage fees, billboard fees, business premises fees, the Land Use Act fees and local government levies.
The chairman, who complained that many youths had continued to shy away from teaching as a career, noted the situation had forced schools to employ untrained teachers.
“You will discover that many unwholesome things that happen in the schools are traceable to some teachers because they lack requisite teaching background and skills,” he said.
Mr Rowland urged the government to relax or consolidate the taxes to reduce the running cost of the schools for a downward review of school fees. He also urged the government to assist private school proprietors in facilitating financial loans at low interest rates.
He said this would help the schools provide necessary teaching aids, thus improving the quality of education.
Mr Rowland, who emphasised the importance of good teachers in schools, called on proprietors to ensure the employment of certified and experienced teachers to enhance learning. He also stressed the importance of continued training and adequate welfare packages to motivate the teachers.
Ogun’s education commissioner, Abayomi Arigbabu, said the state has functional guidelines for approving private schools. According to Mr Arigbabu, private schools that fail to meet such guidelines are not approved.
The commissioner stated that the approval-seeking school must have provided basic and functional amenities before applying for approval. The commissioner said the state government had also made it mandatory for private schools to employ qualified teachers.
In Ilorin, the chairman of the Association of Model Islamic Schools, Kwara chapter, Tahjudeen Bolaji, who did not contest some of the challenges of private schools, however, called for parents’ cooperation.
He identified the abrupt withdrawal of students by parents from schools due to high fees and teachers’ mode of correcting students as some of these challenges. The educationist criticised the situation whereby parents withdraw their children to attend other private or public schools without prior notice.
Mr Bolaji, also the proprietor of Al-Ikhlas Schools, Ilorin, expressed fear that the habit of changing schools arbitrarily would affect the concerned student’s educational development.
The chairman linked the increase in school fees to the hike in the cost of petrol, which, he said, had affected the prices of other goods and services. According to him, private school owners have a full plate to deal with within the school environment.
Mr Bolaji acknowledged the importance of registering private schools with the Corporate Affairs Commission and the state Ministry of Education to ensure professional operations and quality education standards.
He said a teacher should have a minimum qualification of NCE, yet he encouraged those with NCE to pursue higher qualifications.
A parent, Zainab Abdulkadir, said her son was prevented from writing the first term examination because she could not pay his school fees.
According to her, the N90,000 school fees, previously N68,000, did not include transportation. She said her son was depressed because of the situation, making it very hard for her as a parent. Ms Abdulkadir said although she paid part of the fees, the school management still turned down her plea to have her child sit for the exam.
Similarly, Bunmi Olamilekan said her two children were prevented from writing exams because she could not pay their school fees.
Meanwhile, the headteacher of Lady Pearl School, Ilorin, Aina Zakariyau, said school owners should not be blamed because they must pay their workers’ salaries.
According to her, private schools can barely survive the nation’s economic situation.
Ms Zakariyau, however, appealed to parents to ensure they pay their children’s school fees promptly to avoid drastic actions by the school.
