31st October, 2021
By Yemisi Shyllon
The extensive emergence and concomitant deplorable menace of private schools in Nigeria, started with the private investment in education, by our political leaders. They started with governments, taking over the hitherto well managed mission schools away from the missionary owners without properly funding and managing those institutions.
Meanwhile, the public schools under government agencies were nothing compared to the mission schools that were forcefully acquired. Our political leaders, while sitting as lords in governments then went ahead to approve the establishment of their own educational instituitions and those of their cohorts. They did these with a view to gaining materially and satisfying their egocentric complexes of owning universities and private educational institutions even if fate deprived them of such in their youths.
Meanwhile, while doing these, the business advantage and environment had to be created at the disadvantage of public educational institutions via under funding and encouraging/ignoring the in-fighting among dons of public educational institutions.
Solutions:
We should copy the Rwandan model of banning private schools and banning the deplorable act of sitting heads of governments, sitting in council to approve the establishment of their own private educational institutions in detrimental neglect of public educational institutions.
Secondly, we should copy the Finnish model of giving education and of course teachers, a pride of place, in our national planning.
Thirdly, we should allocate 26% of our annual budgets to education, as per the UNO recommendation.
In conclusion, we must truthfully reflect and ask ourselves: Who were/are the fathers of those currently in control of our nation and world? They were nothing, when compared to our current leaders.
Hence as of fact, this nation’s future can only be better assured, if we on merit, give the children of our poor in public schools, who are in the majority, the developmental opportunities to play their God given roles in our future, by enhancing their potentials in the absence of the required means, of their parents.
From history, the future generations of the poor, are those that end up building and sustaining the greatness of their nations. No! Not the children of the rich. The spoilt rich, end up patering off, leaving room for the future generations of the hitherto poor. It is the generations of those our poor majority, that we are ignoring today, that holds the key to the greatness of country’s future.
We the elites therefore should for the good of country’s future, reorientate our thinking, into recognizing their importance for our nation’s future.
*Prince Yemisi Shyllon, lawyer, founder of the Art Foundation “Omooba Yemisi Adedoyin Shyllon Art Foundation (OYASAF)” and public affairs analyst, writes from Lagos