Government’s turning blind eye to uncontro- llably proliferation of private schools

MY NAME is Maureen Omolade Ajayi (Mrs.), the proprietor of Divine International Nursery and Primary School, Federal Housing Estate, Ita-Elega, Abeokuta.

How long have you been in this business of education?
To God be the glory. I have administered this school for 31 years.

What will you consider your major experience since you established this school?
The major experience that I believe that is related to this school and that also related to some other owners of schools, is the proximity of each school to one another. When I established this school in 1989 we were given yardsticks concerning the distance of school from each other. I can remember very well that some schools in Abeokuta North (Local Government Area) were not even allowed to stay where they wanted to be. They were asked to move some kilometers away from the existing schools. We can see it's no longer like that now. You can see owners of schools that are just springing up. Instead of giving respect to schools they met on ground they malign themselves, all in the name of setting up some schools.
I want to suggest that we should go back to the status quo ante where the distance from one school to the other would be a little far. I'm not speaking for the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. I know they also know what Education Law says and what rules concerning the establishment of schools say. They should try to see to it just like public schools. Public schools are not too close to themselves. If you look at the area we are now you will see that there are only three public schools. Government schools are not too close to themselves. Government is turning blind eye to this uncontrollably proliferation of private schools. Ministry of Education is looking the other direction when it comes to the establishment of private schools.
In this environment there are nine private schools within a minute, two minutes walking distance to one another, plus my school makes ten schools within the same catchment area – on the same proximity. In an area like this you will have over 100 schools as it is. This has been the great experience for me but to God be the glory that we have been able to go through those stages.
The school is still existing and doing very well. We thank God for His mercy. It has not been easy when you look at this area I have spoken about. It has not been easy running the school. But we thank God the school is doing well.

You would have turned out about 20 sets by now. How are the alumni doing?
Thank you for that question. The alumni of this school are doing very well. The school celebrated its 25th Founder's Day between 8 and 12 December 2014. Up to this stage we have been able to turn out almost 20 sets just like you have said. We did not run the school concurrently then. When we started the school we went from nursery to primary, like that, then the children graduated until they got to Primary 5 or 6. Unlike now when people open new schools in another three months they are calling people for graduation ceremonies. We didn't do that. That gave us standard around here, because we are able to monitor those children. We monitor the children from one class to another. By the time they left or graduated to secondary schools they did very well. That has been something I'm very proud of and the alumni too. We are very proud of them. A lot of them got back to the school to attend the 25th Year Celebration of the School. I was even surprise when I saw it online; saw my pharmacists, doctors, lawyers, teachers, pastors, lecturers and they are doing very well in their various spheres. We thank God for this achievement.

Looking at Ogun State at 42, would you say Ogun State has done well in the education sector, or there are other areas it needs to do more to meet international standard and best practice.
I wish to congratulate Ogun State at 40. The state has done very well. Ogun State is not only the cradle of Christianity but also education in Nigeria. If you look at the pace that has been set in education Ogun State is doing relatively very well. Like Oliver Twist, I will say the sky is not the limit but the starting point. There is still a lot to be done. I congratulate the governor, Governor Ibikunle Amosun concerning the model schools and we are looking forward for those schools opening. And when they open we will see the facilities and other things that have been put in place to meet the teaching and learning process effectively. Then we will be really seeing the type of standard that has been set. I'm sure the government of Ogun State wouldn't want it to be what the present government schools are noted for. The children would be left unattended to, to cut grass, or the teachers would not be there to really do what they ought to do as teachers in the classroom. I'm sure this will not be the case with the model schools. So we want to congratulate Ogun State at 40.
At the education sector, I believe there is still a lot of room for improvement, especially, in terms of teaching aids and infrastructure in schools, especially government schools. This is the reason why some parents prefer private schools because they know government schools are still lacking in those areas but I believe Ogun State is doing relatively well compare with other states in Nigeria but there is still room for lots of improvement.

You may have heard some ugly development in schools both public and private. You tend to observe some negative trends that should be arrested immediately. The issue of cultism coming into primary and secondary schools, I doubt you don't experience it yet in your school? What do you see to this and where the problem is coming from?
It is unfortunate, if we are talking of cultism in primary school; even in secondary schools, it is unfortunate; and even at the university level, it is unfortunate. And I believe it starts from the home. Though from experience there are some children who come from very good homes but when they go out, especially in boarding schools they mix with some children having social challenges. They mix with some children who are from broken homes, some are from homes that are not broken but where parents have not been able to really work on the behavioural aspect of bringing up a child.
When you look at this area sometime it is unfortunate. Just like I have said, it's unfortunate. Looking at it from our respective homes, we should be able to train our children. We should be able to put them in the way of the Lord if we are Christians and even if we are Muslims, we should be able to tune our children and impact the right values in them so that by the time they get to nursery, they get to primary, and they get to secondary schools they won't be able to mix with a bad group. We know  the effect of peer pressure on a child is very, very enormous. But at the same time the parents should do their best so that these children will turn out well in life.
It is also unfortunate that schools no longer operate like those of the olden days. In the olden days when you see any child that is having moral deficiency you notice that it's either such a child was placed on suspension or expelled after so many reports of such a child to his/her parents. Things like these though may still be existing, but it is not common now. You don't hear a child is on suspension or expulsion any more. It is not as common as it was then. You dare not misbehave then. Even a week suspension they placed you, you know what would happen to you with your parents. Thing like these should be reintroduced in our schools. A child who misbehaves can be given suspension or expulsion depending on the gravity of his/her misdemeanour. Within the school setting, a child can be given mild discipline (punishment). It doesn't have to be beating (corporal punishment). All this will make the child know that all what he/she has done is not good.
I would want to advocate that we should all go back to the basics so that the issue of cultism in our schools will no longer be as rampant as it is now.

Looking at the new curriculum, one would have thought it is a good thing to happen to our educational system. On the other hand, one would still say it would encourage laziness in our young ones. In what way did old curriculum had hampered the progress of, the understanding of children in such a way that they become less useful to themselves, the society and Nigeria as a whole?
I want to appreciate those who are at the helms of affairs, especially those that put the new curriculum together and people at the National Education Research Development and Curriculum (NREDC) for coming out each time to improve on the curriculum that is useful in Nigeria at the primary school level and the secondary school level too.
I'm of the belief that the new curriculum is an improvement on the old one because of the fact that some of the subjects have been merged together and when you go through the new curriculum now you will find out the conceptual framework for Basic 1 – 3, which comprises of seven (7) subjects and Basic 4-6, which comprises of nine (9) subjects. In Basic 1-3 apart from the core subjects like English Study, Yoruba Study, Mathematics, there are other related subjects like Basic Science, Basic Technology and Information Technology (IT) that are merged. Religion and National Values consist of Social Study, Civic Education, Christian Religious Study, Islamic Study and National Education. When you look at the way these subjects have been merged together so as to reduce the number of subjects the children would be taken and would sit for at any examination you will see that it is an improvement when compared with the old one.
Then the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) has really done well by compiling the Scheme of Work for us by breaking them down into First Term, Second Term and Third Term so that it would be easy for the schools and the teachers to really work on it and the desire objectives of having this new Scheme of Work are achieved.

Do you think the new curriculum will be able to achieve the detail of the old curriculum giving that subjects are now merged in the new curriculum?
Yes, like I said. As a matter of fact when we brought in the new Scheme of Work and my teachers went through it what my teachers said was that the new Scheme of Work would really make schools to generate better results compare to the old one. As a result of the economic situation of Nigeria, parents don't have time to sit with their children again to check what they have done at schools. And because of the number of subjects that have been broken down and some other subjects merged together, I'm of the belief that this new Scheme of Work would achieve better results than the former one.

Do you say the new curriculum will achieve better result because parents would have time now to check their wards' school works because school subjects have reduced?
It depends on the parents. You know it does not matter to some parents even if the subjects are 20 they have all the time, even the teachers too. The Teaching-Learning process involves the children; it involves the school and the teachers; it involves the parents too. So it depends on the parents. The parents should just have attitudinal change, I mean change of attitude, concerning how they handle their children. Some parents have all the time for their children to find out what their children have done in schools each day. They would ask: Have you done your homework? They can go into all their notes to see what they have done to make sure that their children perform well, even in competition, even with other children at schools. They would say: “Let me see, what did you score; why did you score this. And they will worm through all the notes of their children to see that next time such children perform better.
On the other hand, you have parents who don't have all the time. It is in cognizance of this that this new curriculum has merged subjects together so that it would be easy for the children and parents to supervise – to stop this type of parents from saying: 'A kuku mo iye ise (we don't know the number of subjects that you're doing.). Some have said it's because the subjects are too many that children cannot cope; even those children that are performing on the average level or below average they can compare them with the children that even if they don't copy note they are able to perform better with what the teachers have said in the class, sit for exam and pass well. With this new Scheme of Work now all the challenges or problems we have heard in the past would have been addressed.

Would you say the idea is not in the effectiveness of the curriculum but in the cost-effectiveness of delivering the curriculum that would have motivated the new one?
I think the effectiveness too. I don't think it's because of the cost effective but the effectiveness of the subjects too. You don't just have to look at the cost especially to the children.

In other words, you don't have to produce more examination materials; you don't have to produce questions papers in all subjects any more like before; that are vital to the government, parents and proprietors of private schools – that reduces cost.
I don't want us to look at it from that angle. When you look at it on its whole education is very expensive. That's why an idiom says “If you think education is too expensive, try ignorance”. We are under the Ogun State Ministry of Education.  We go by the Time-Table, if government says we are spending 14 weeks we go by it. Some time we even feed children for the extra week for free because we wouldn't want the parents to come and pay anything extra. I wouldn't want us to look at it from the point of view of cost-effectiveness.
I want to look at it from the angle of this new Scheme of Work trying to meet the need of an average Nigerian child academically so as to bring the very best in them. It is still new. By the time teachers adopt it fully we shall see the effectiveness in it. There is always room to raise issues around it with the Ministry of Education. If there is any policy on education that we see is not in the best interest of the children we are allowed to complain. We do this even when we go for training, and when we go for workshop. We come together to arrive at an acceptable conclusion which is always in the best interest of each of these children under our care. That's the way I look at it.

Now, you have an association called NAPPS. How this NAPPS has been able to help private schools to bring sanity into the business?
Under the leadership of the erstwhile State President of Ogun NAPPS of late memory, that's, late Dr Abayomi Jiboku, there had been a lot of innovations especially as it affects schools under NAPPS. For example, under his leadership the Association made diaries, registers which are an improvement compare with the ones we buy at bookshops. We are able to have under him this Scheme of Work too.
When the new curriculum was introduced Ogun State NAPPS was able to form a committee of proprietors and teachers and we were able to compile the subjects, to really breakdown the topics under each subject. Like I said before they had broken them down into First Term, Second Term and Third Term. Also, subjects like Civic Education and Social Studies are added for Basic 6 in order to broaden the pupils' knowledge before they get to secondary schools. These are some of the things that the Association has been able to do.
They were able to visit schools in each local government area of the State to really see the standard that has been set by each school, to give suggestions to school proprietors on how to run their schools or the environment that each school is located. There have also been other schools that have been recommended for closure. If you lay your hands on the past Ogun NAPPS newsletter you will see photographs of schools that such list has been sent to the Ministry and they have been asked to put things right if they know they still want to run schools. These are laudable achievements that the out-gone State Executive had been able to put in place, which I believe that those are the helms of affairs now would still able to sustain and even improve on other areas to see that the association stands as one.