Nostalgic: When public schools confirm supremacy over private at national debate

The debate among stakeholders over the quality of education offered in public and private schools has dominated discourse for some time.

While some experts believe public schools are better, others opt for private institutions.

But how else can one describe a situation where government-owned institutions thrashed their private school counterparts in a competition despite the exorbitant school fees paid by parents/guardians of the latter for their children/wards? Is the victory of public schools over private schools a fluke? Does spending so much for a child’s education amount to extravagance, considering the wide gap between the rich and the poor? Are graduates from private schools more employable than their counterparts from public schools? These are some of the questions stakeholders will attempt to answer in this piece.

At the 2017 National Institute for Legislative Studies (NILS)/Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Senior Secondary Schools Quiz Competition in Abuja, three public schools clinched the overall best three positions.

The second edition of the quiz, which started with over 80 public and private secondary schools in the nation’s capital across eight zonal centres, centred on Legislature and Democracy.

The annual quiz was put together by the Institute in conjunction with FCT Secondary Education Board.

It climaxed with a grand finale at the National Assembly Complex, Abuja where eight public schools floored their counterparts from private institutions to emerge finalists.

The eight public schools are Government Secondary School, Dangara; School of the Gifted, Gwagwalada; Government Secondary School, Hajj Camp; Government Secondary School, Karshi; Government Secondary School, Kubwa; Government Secondary School, Tudun Wada; Government Secondary School, Wuse and Government Secondary School, Zuba.

Some of the private schools that participated at the zonal levels include Premier Academy Lugbe, Oasis International School, Lugbe, Madonna Girls Secondary School Kuje, Pace Setters College Wuye, Ar-Raman International School Asokoro, Redeemer Secondary School Garki, Noble Height Academy Karu and a host of others.

At the end of the keenly contested exercise which lasted for over six hours, School of the Gifted, Gwagwalada; Government Secondary School, Karshi and Government Secondary School, Tudun Wada emerged first, second and third, respectively.

No doubt, this has ignited the debate about the quality of education being offered in private schools in the nation’s capital, where some parents struggle to pay millions of naira as tuition fees for their wards.

Parents spend between N1.5 million and N3.6million per child every session, which amounts to N9 million and N21.6 million, respectively per child to complete a secondary education in Grade A private institutions in the FCT.

A staff of the National Assembly, who spoke to BDSUNDAY on the matter, disclosed that he had to sell his exotic car to purchase a cheap one to enable him pay his children’s school fees in the current academic session.

Findings also revealed that economic recession has forced some parents/guardians to withdraw their children/wards from expensive private secondary schools to relatively cheap ones, even as banks now offer loans to them to pay school fees for their children/wards.

Investigations by BDSUNDAY showed that private schools where fees run into millions of naira are mostly patronised by heavyweight politicians, wealthy businessmen and top civil servants, who see it as alternative to sending their children abroad to acquire quality education.

According to them, private institutions have state-of-the-art learning environment, latest technology that meet global standards, unlike what obtains in public schools. They insist that the standard of education in public schools has fallen, hence the need to give their wards quality education at all cost. They buttress their argument with the fact that most teachers in public schools have their children/wards in private schools.

“Honestly, how many parents can send their children to the public schools they attended? Standard of education has fallen and we all know that. It doesn’t matter if school fees in private secondary schools are higher than those in universities. All that matters is that quality education is the best legacy a parent can leave for his children,”  Mariam Nwamanna Erhie, justifying why she sent her children to private school on social media platform, Facebook.

She submitted that the high fees some parents complain about in private institutions were insignificant when compared with the benefits.

On the other side of the coin, parents whose wards are in public schools argue that despite boasting of state-of-the-art facilities, manpower remains a serious challenge in private schools as they parade ‘unqualified’ teachers.

“There is no career progression in private schools for teachers. They have no prerequisite knowledge in education. I know of a private school where a graduate of Yoruba teaches Physical Education. It is a den for those who have no job but resort to teaching to keep body and soul, pending when they secure better employment,” a public school teacher, Opeyemi Illesanmi countered Erhie on Facebook.

On its part, the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) posited that while the minimum teaching qualification in public schools is National Certificate in Education (NCE), it alleged that in some cases, private schools employ Senior Secondary Certificate Education (SSCE) holders as teachers.

“Public schools have the most qualified personnel. They are not short of skilled manpower. What the private school proprietors do is that they go and employ secondary school graduates or at most graduates in other fields. I know of a private school, they will bring somebody to start as a School Attendant and the next thing you will find such a person teaching in the nursery. You will find somebody who will be manning security gate, the next thing the person is in the classroom teaching,” Emmanuel Hwande, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of NUT, told BDSUNDAY in an interview.

Hwande attributed the success of students of public schools at the quiz to the ‘doggedness and sacrificial capacity of the teachers’ that nurtured them for the exercise.

He, however, lamented lack of funding for public schools by government at all levels, expressing shock that the same public officials attended government-owned schools during their time. He said despite parading qualified personnel, public schools have been neglected by government at all levels. This, he attributed, to the poor state of facilities and generally poor learning environment in public schools.

In the 2017 budget recently signed into law by Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, the sum of N448.01billion was earmarked for education, representing 6 percent of the N7.44 trillion budget, contrary to the 26 percent recommended by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). Out of the sum allocated to the sector, a paltry sum of N50 billion was earmarked for capital projects.

The global body recommended 26 percent budgetary benchmark to enable countries adequately cater for rising education demands.

However, the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) has urged the Federal Government to include private schools in its annual budget for education.

Rabi’u Kurfi, president of the association, said the inclusion of private schools in the country’s annual budget would maximise the contributions of the schools toward the country’s development.

But the NUT said while new public schools spring up in the FCT regularly, this is not the case with 36 other states of the Federation.

“The shortcoming is government commitment. When we begin to look at government funding, supervisory roles, it is absent. That’s just where the missing link is. But in terms of who is better qualified, you can’t take it away from public schools.

“You find children in public schools; they are children of the poor. You will find that they are those whose parents are petty traders, artisans.

“What we are saying is that you cannot find a private school collecting a school fees of less than N50,000 a term. So, if you go back to the government and the government is investing up to N20,000 per term for a student, it will go a long way to upgrade the system. But government is not doing anything. It’s only in Abuja here that you see new public schools springing up. I’m sure if you go to your state, outside the traditional public schools, you cannot find any new public schools.

“Of course, you saw when it was trending that cows were visiting one public school in Edo State. You cannot find that in a private school because every private school is well fenced.

“If government should commit over 20 percent of the annual budget to education it will go a long way. And we have discovered that some countries are doing this: Ghana is putting that much. So, it’s lamentable; a situation where you see people who are governors today, none of them went to private schools. They all went to public schools but they are neglecting the sector,” Hwande said.

According to the Centre for African Studies, private sector engagement in education, which includes a vibrant mix of for‐profit, non‐profit and faith‐based organisations, has grown significantly around the world. The Centre submitted that in the last two decades, the percentage of students in low‐income countries attending private primary schools doubled from 11 percent to 22 percent. “The number of private schools across Africa for primary and secondary education also continues to rise,” the Centre said on its website.

This comes as stakeholders have called for the declaration of a state of emergency in the education sector in Nigeria following the decline in quality of education.

To resolve the myriad of challenges facing the sector, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) is set to hold an inter-ministerial retreat where all the ministers will have the opportunity to contribute their ideas to revamp the sector. The retreat is scheduled to hold in the next two weeks.

Education Minister, Adamu Adamu, stated this last week while briefing journalists after the weekly FEC meeting.

Ibrahim Usman Yakasai, director, Corporate Communications, National Universities Commission (NUC), also bared his mind on the matter. In a telephone interview with BDSUNDAY, he argued that despite challenges in public schools, they are more likely to cover the syllabus than their counterparts in private institutions.

According to him, he is not surprised that government schools thrashed private schools at the quiz.

“You are more likely to have better education that will cover the syllabus in public schools than in private schools; because in government schools, most of them will be older. Secondly, the tradition of teaching and learning, you will find more in them.

“Most of the private schools are just after money. They just teach kids how to pass examinations whereas they will not cover the syllabus. They are only interested in how many of their kids pass the final examination. But government secondary schools, especially the older ones, where you have the culture, tradition of following syllabus and you have older and experienced teachers, you are more likely to find teachers of two, three decades in government schools that have been training kids; so it is not surprising if government schools beat private schools at a quiz competition. Because government schools are more interested in covering syllabus and by doing this, they also hope that the impact on the kids will live long; not just for them to pass examination,” he submitted.

On the assertion by promoters of private schools that they have state-of-the-art facilities and organise extra classes for their students, Yakasai countered that extra lessons over-stretch the mental capacities of learners, causing psychological stress on their brains and assimilation patterns. “If you are talking of extra lectures most of them are unnecessary. Private schools will force kids to pay money for what they call ‘extra lectures’. If the timetable of the school is very structured syllabus will be covered. The time they do extra lectures, they are already saturated and tired. They have closed for school and they will stay behind when they are supposed to go home and take their lunch, nap and rest, they are there again teaching them”.

On his part, the President of the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools, Rabi’u Kurfi, said private schools provide quality facilities in compliance with government’s regulations.

Kurfi explained that the private sector is not competing with government but an extra resource to complement government’s effort at spreading education to all.

He pointed out that private schools pay huge wages to retain good teachers.

His words: “We achieve a lot because our students are the best in terms of academic performance.

“If you go to state universities you will find out that most of the students are products of private schools. They graduate with either Second Class Upper or First Class degrees. Most of the students from public schools have to undergo remedial programmes. That is why we are appealing to the government not to see us as rivals. We need support, tolerance and partnership. We don’t make much profit because we pay rent on houses, pay electricity and water bills and taxes. There is multiple taxation; and government has to do a lot here to rescue the situation”.

To address the declining quality of education in the country, analysts have also called for the revival of school inspectorate units where Inspectors of Education pay unannounced visits to schools, even as they stressed the need for political will on the part of government to tackle the multi-faceted challenges facing the sector.

OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja