Nigerians have called for crowdfunding to ensure that Morit International School, at Ajegunle in Lagos State, where the “plastic-for-tuition” initiative allows indigent parents to send their children to school amid surging economic crunch does not collapse.
The school accepts 100kg of plastics for a tuition fee per child, and a kilogram of plastic bottles consists of 21 units sold for N100, to allow parents who could not afford to pay school fees due to the prevailing economic hardship to have their children educated.
However, according to the Al Jazeera report, Patrick Mbamarah, the proprietor of the school explained that while ordinarily this would be a blessing, the payment scheme has created logistical issues that have proven a bigger challenge, and cost beyond what he anticipated.
“Every week, parents bring in the plastic payment, but there is no storage facility on-site to keep tonnes of bottles for days, Mbamarah explained.
“Hiring a pick-up van to regularly carry them to recycling points for sale comes at a huge cost that considerably drains the school’s proceeds,” he said.
The logistics crisis he said, is now affecting school operations by limiting initiative to only the primary school, putting the whole project on the cusp of extinction.
“Parents bring enough plastic bottles, but most times they take them back home because we don’t have space to keep them.
I work with two recycling companies, but they hardly come on time to pick up. So both the school and the parents often have excess plastic bottles,” he explained.
Read also: UNICEF seeks more investment in Nigeria’s basic education
The school owner is worried because, with the challenges and costs, he is defaulting on the repayment of loans he took from two banks to pay rent and staff salaries.
The school borrowed N300,000 to renew the primary school’s yearly rent in December 2023, while of the secondary school gulps N800,000 annually.
“A time will come when I won’t be able to pay the rent again, and the property owners will just ask us to leave the school premises. I fear that in a very short time, I won’t be able to run the primary school again. I have been doing everything to cut costs,” he said.
Stanley Alaubi, senior lecturer at the University of Port Harcourt, said an initiative of such magnitude should be embraced by good-hearted people and ensure it does not collapse
“This is when all of us should show our humanity. A crow funding will help save the school at this moment. It won’t be out of place if we all contribute to save the school,” he said.
Isaiah Ogundele, an educationist, in the same vein, applauded the owner of the school for his efforts to positively impact his community and generation.
“Without a doubt, the owner has been making a positive impact on his or her environment. The proprietor has contributed immensely to the betterment of the parents and their children’s lives.
“For the school to continue all well-meaning and progressive people should come together and rescue the school from total alienation. I don’t want to say government because they have not finished the one they are chewing,” he said.
Evi Itive, a parent blamed the government for the economic crisis that has made many parents fail in their responsibilities.
“It’s a failure of society of course, how can a nation survive when her citizens are not cared for by the authority,” he asked.
According to recent estimates released by UNICEF, over 18.3 million children in Nigeria are out of school.
This figure represents more than just numbers; it represents a generation of young Nigerians who are being denied their fundamental right to education.
This, the stakeholders said does not speak well of Nigeria and everything needs to be done to avoid escalating the already worsening situation.
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