Investigations by Punch newspaper into the state of private schools in Nigeria have revealed the extent to which gross dereliction of duty and corruption by public officials have resulted in arbitrary approval of schools that lack qualified teachers and basic facilities. Everyone should be concerned that private schools that are not fit to operate exist without close and proper supervision by relevant officials of state education ministry. 

The gripping report published in the Punch of Tuesday, September 24, 2019, exposes the careless attitude of officials who abdicate their responsibility to supervise private schools. Overall, the report is chilling. It provides deep insights into the dreadful ways that incompetent and mediocre public officers perform their duties in Nigeria.  

The Punch investigations revealed shocking instances in which some private school owners hired school leavers to work as teachers. The report also showed systematic failure by education officials, dilapidated facilities in many of the private schools, and desperate parents driven by poverty to enrol their children into poorly equipped kindergarten and primary schools that employ unqualified teachers.

Nigerian primary education system is distressing. Private school operators are cultivating today the seeds of poor graduate outcomes in the future. Parents and students have suffered inestimable psychological pain owing to the disgraceful quality of education offered by private schools that operate in an environment in which they are not supervised. On paper, private school proprietors promise everyone high quality of education. In practice, however, the experience has been nightmarish.

What students are offered in primary schools and what parents experience are nowhere near the bogus promises made by private school owners. Rather than promote high standards as embedded in the curriculum, private schools across the country demand high fees but offer in return poor standards of education that have left parents and students boiling with anger.

Who is really fooling whom in Nigeria? Why should government approve establishment of private schools that are big on promises but poor and deficient on the quality of education they offer to students? Do ill-equipped private schools hold the key to Nigeria’s social and economic transformation? Why do private school proprietors promise services their schools cannot afford to provide? Why should private school operators demand high fees but hire second-rate teachers with less than average knowledge of the subjects they teach their students?

The key causes of the snag in our education system are not too difficult to decipher. In general, the quality of teaching in primary and secondary schools has diminished irredeemably. Most schools, public and private, lack basic facilities to support quality teaching. What level of support do state governments provide to public schools to enable them to achieve excellence in teaching and to assist students to attain their learning objectives? At the centre of these questions are public concerns about poor standards of education in primary and secondary schools across the country.

Teachers in primary and secondary schools must be compelled to undertake regular professional development programmes intended to improve their qualifications, their knowledge, their skills, and to familiarise them with the challenges of teaching in the 21st century and beyond. Falling standards of primary education require a more holistic approach to problems that confront the primary education system.

It is true that standards have declined over the years but it is also true that the factors that account for falling quality of education are easily discernible. They include but are not limited to non-existence of essential structures to support quality teaching and learning practices, a culture of indiscipline among teachers and students, students’ poor perceptions of the value of education in a society that adores wealth, hiring of teachers without basic qualifications for teaching in primary schools, lack of innovative teaching practices by teachers, as well as irregular evaluation of school curriculum to ensure that it is reflective of the realities and challenges of the 21st century.

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Government must not approve the establishment of private schools while standards of teaching, quality of teachers, evidence of teaching facilities, and other essential requirements for the operation of private schools are overlooked. There must be no compromise on the benchmarks for approval of private schools. Government and private school operators must keep this in mind. If we must lift the quality of education at primary and secondary school levels, high standards must be accorded priority attention.

It is disturbing that state governments have ignored clear evidence and heedlessly approved private schools that are unfit to offer educational services in primary schools. This is happening in a situation in which existing private schools have not demonstrated that they are more reliable, more rigorous in terms of the quality of education they offer, and they have not shown that their curriculum is richer than, or superior to, that of public schools. There is a saying that what is worth doing is worth doing well. We are yet to see this implemented in private schools. Are private schools more profit-driven than service-oriented?

Private schools are not flawless. Ever since government began approving applications for establishment of private schools in a chaotic manner, the message has gone out to prospective proprietors that high quality of education is unimportant. With deregulation of primary and secondary school sectors, there have been complaints from students and parents about poor standards of teaching in primary schools, and engagement of teachers without requisite qualifications. There are also other illegalities that have undermined the integrity of private schools, including the processes for approval of the schools, and the underhand deals between education ministry officials and private school proprietors.

Inadequacies in primary school education have exposed the ugly underbelly of the private school system. Rather than serve as alternative centres for advancement of higher quality education and knowledge creation, private schools have become a vehicle through which mediocre teachers and educational administrators are offered jobs through the back door.

In private schools, corruption has been elevated to scandalous proportions. The platform on which private school owners made their case was that students from their institutions perform much better than students from public schools. That argument is flawed and no longer supported. Students who attend private schools are exposed to poor standards and unqualified teachers as are students who attend public schools.

To be clear, approval of private schools that are deficient in all aspects of primary education in our modern age has not raised standards of education or eliminated sharp practices that have marred quality education in public schools.

The processes of establishing private schools in Nigeria should be thoroughly investigated to determine once and for all the validity of the procedures, and the soundness of the argument for more private schools. Private school owners need to provide verifiable evidence that their schools offer higher quality education, that they are more effective and result-oriented, and that they are reliable and free of abuses.

We live in a society that condemns corruption but many people still do business through corrupt practices. The devious processes through which private schools are approved have diminished primary education system and weakened the quality of education generally. Fraudulent practices must not be allowed to add further indignity to the appalling image of Nigeria’s education system. We must remember this: a rotten education system will always produce rotten outcomes.