…Why patronage soars for low-cost schools
Housed in cubicles and dilapidated structures, the number of low-cost schools in Lagos is soaring. HANNAH OJO writes on how parents, in their craze for private schools, are shunning well structured public schools to patronize the low-cost ones that now pimple the city.
It is break time at Ishaga Close Primary School, Mushin. The pupils are out on the field playing with a kind of excitement that would make an adult long wistfully for the good old days in early school. The expansive compound which boasts newly refurbished blocks, also houses the Islamic Model Mission Primary School. The two public schools are owned by the Lagos State Government. Although their uniforms were different, the pupils were all playing together, oblivious of the difference in their schools’ names.
In a part of the compound, an irked gateman whips some erring children with a cane. “They are mischievous little things”, he told the reporter without being asked. Well manicured flower beds adorn parts of the expansive compound. But the beautiful sight is neutralized by a heap of refuse that blocks the entrance to the long lines of toilets. It is obvious that the waste managers have not been showing up in a long while. To urinate, most of the pupils make use of a gutter at a corner of the compound and only manoeuvre their ways through the garbage to the long line of toilets if they need to pooh.
“Many people did not know we have nursery a section here,” said one of the teachers who asked not to be named because civil servants are not allowed to speak to journalists.
“When it was discovered that these jeleosimi (low-cost schools) were springing up everywhere, the state government set up a nursery section where parents can register their children from age three. But I don’t know why parents till patronize these schools that are opening everywhere because of unemployment.
“We have enough classrooms, toilets and the facilities are okay. The only problem is lack of sufficient furniture for the pupils to sit on. But the local government has helped us with some,” the teacher said.
If there is a place where a stubborn sense of hope defies the logic of reality, it is Adenike Memorial Nursery/Primary School, Bariga, a private school. The vision of the school contained in a cardboard that was pasted on the wall in the drab looking office of the head teacher’s reads: “To ensure that our pupils are best in school academic throughout Lagos state. Also, to prepare our pupils for future.” When our correspondent visited the school’s vicinity on a Thursday, sight that confronted her did not seem to synchronise with the school’s avowed vision. The infrastructure needed for the implementation of such lofty ideals was simply nowhere in sight.
The classrooms were partitioned with planks. The fans were not working and there was little space for children to play. The environment notwithstanding; the head teacher, a middle aged woman who did not want to be quoted, reluctantly explained how the school was helping to provide education for the children of the poor.
She said: “We have 109 pupils manned by a staff of 10, two of whom are non-teaching. If parents are not happy with what we are teaching their children, they would have stopped coming. There are many schools like this in this area.”
Investigation revealed that tuition at the school ranges between N6, 000 and N7, 000 per term. 
Newly painted with a colourful banner displayed at its gate, it is not hard to notice Best Future Nursery and Primary School in Aborishade Street, another private school in a suburb of Idi-Araba community, which harbours a high number of low income earners. The school occupies a compartment on the floor of a one-storey ‘room and parlour’ building.
Youthful Yusuf Ayuba, the headmaster and son of the proprietress, says his teaching experience spans eight years.
“Our parents don’t earn much, so the fees have to be affordable,” he said. “Once they see the performance of their children, they don’t like to withdraw them from school.
“We charge N6000 for nursery and N6, 500 for primary. It will surprise you to know that some parents elsewhere pay three or more times of that amount.”
Although Ayuba would not give the actual number of pupils and teachers in the school, a keen observation suggest that the school may be short-staffed as Ayuba was seen manning two classes at a time. But the children seemed happy.
Pasted at the gate was a vacancy notice on cardboard asking experienced teachers to apply within. The required qualification was not stated.
Parents do have a say
Given the rate at which low income schools are springing up and the level of patronage they enjoy from low income earners, it appears that parents are not particular about the structures in those school but the academic performances of their children and wards. This is in spite of the efforts the state government has made in recent years to improve the standard of education in its public schools.
Ruth Alhausa, a secondary school teacher with a child in a low-cost nursery school, said parents are shunning public primary schools because they want the best for their children.
She said: “Most of the public schools are overcrowded while parents want schools where their children can get individual attention. The issue of protection is also key, because teachers in private schools wait for parents to pick up their wards while in public schools, teachers don’t have the patience. The children are just too vulnerable.”
Another parent, Adenike Aderogba, a petty trader whose children attend Canaanland Nursery and Primary School in Bariga, affirmed that despite the meager income she makes from trading, she would not consider sending her children to a public school.
She queries: “How many of the big men have their children in public schools? Not even the government officials. As for me, I will starve to pay the fees. My children are my only hope. It is because of them that I am fasting and depriving myself to see that they become important persons in the future.” 
Felicia Folorunsho, a single mother with a four- year-old daughter, also told The Nation that although she would not mind sending her daughter to a public secondary school, she would rather patronize a low income school with a manageable environment at the elementary stage.
“Primary education is the foundation. I don’t want to take chances. I doubt if children often get individual attention in public schools because of the large class. I desire a better life for my child”.
The total number of private schools in Lagos stands at about 12, 093, according to DEEPEN (Developing Effective Private Education in Nigeria), an NGO funded by the UK Department for International Development. Data from the Lagos State Bureau of statistics in 2009 indicate the number of public primary school to be 1, 081. Public junior secondary schools are 323, while public secondary school stands at 303. This brings the number of public schools to a total of 1, 707. The term ‘low income’ is used to refer to schools that charge between N1, 000 and N25, 000 school fees per year. 
With the staggering statistics, the reality is beginning to set in that the ‘low-cost’ schools are playing a complementary role in the provision of education in the state. Some of them are members of an association known as Association of Formidable Education for Development (AFED). AFED, which has been in existence for 16 years, works with the state government and NGOS to ensure better standard in those schools.
AFED’s president, Ifejola Dada, in a chat with The Nation, confirmed that their schools use the same curriculum as public schools. She added that the over 12, 000 schools registered with the association also participates in a unified AFED examination used in grading students.
On the possibility of extracurricular activities since most of the schools have the challenge of space which tend to limit the scope of activities pupils can participate in, she said: “We are trying to organize joint sports activities which will take place from time to time. We are looking forward to one at the zonal level by November and another one at the national level by February next year.”
She also said that AFED was working with government to ease the burden of multiple taxations by getting exemption from some of the levies payable to government because of the low-cost education they are providing.
“The AFED schools have also been given the inclusion to write common entrance exam, and they record 80-90 percent pass,” she added.
Incidentally, some of the schools from the slums are getting attention from the international community. Ken Ade Private School in Apollo Street, Makoko is one of such.
Bawo Ayeseteminikan, a trained quantity surveyor, who had gone ahead to acquire an educational degrees from the University of Lagos founded the school in 1990 shortly after finishing youth service. The school had benefited from a hole-in-the- wall learning station for children, courtesy of the William Family Charitable Trust Association in conjunction with Newcastle University. However, at the time the reporter visited, the gadgets powered by solar energy were no longer working.
Ayeseteminikan prides himself as offering a school where any person who thinks education is important can benefit from. “The international community has been interested in me. From a CNN exposure of what I was doing, I was invited to the United kingdom and other places of the world to explain how I am able to manage the school with the peanuts I charge parents”, he enthused.
Although Makoko reels with poverty-stricken slum dwellers, parents hardly withdraw their children from Ken Ade because the school operates a flexible system where records are opened for parents to pay the fees by installment.
“Asking them to pay in full at once scares parents. I try to let them understand they can come per day and pay what they have. I have a register where parents can make payment bit by bit”.
On sourcing qualified teachers, he admitted that teachers with higher degrees in education are expensive to keep. However, he was quick to allude to the success stories of education in the slum. “Majority of my teachers passed through this place. Some have HND, NCE and we have those who did not go beyond primary 6 but they are now managers in their various fields. We also have those who are in universities. My son is a medical doctor and he is a product of this school”. 
Different stroke for secondary schools
While some parents favour low-income schools for primary education, it is a different case for secondary school education in the state where more pupils are enrolled in public schools.
When The Nation visited Obele Community Grammar school in Surulere, the place was alive with learning activities as cane wielding teachers took turns to teach students.
A principal officer of the school, who spoke off records, bemoaned the fact that low-income earners strain themselves to send their wards to private schools as a result of lack of information.
The officer said: “Teachers in public schools are far more qualified than those in private schools, but parents think that sending their children to private school is a kind of status symbol. The only advantage I’ll say they have over public schools is that their uniforms are beautiful. And I think some public schools also have very beautiful uniforms. Apart from that, the public school teachers are better.”
On external examinations such as WASCCE and NECO where private schools outdo their counterparts in private schools, the officer said such grounds should not be used in judging the quality of the schools.
“We all know what happens during those exams. Most of the examinations done are not based on true performance of the children. And unless we get that right, most of the problems we have in the educational sector will continue. Thank God for the high fees in private schools, a lot of parents are bringing their children to public schools and they are realizing that there is really no difference,” She stated.
Although public secondary schools in Lagos attract more patronage, there is also the challenge of crowdedness, owing to the growing population.
Dr. Modupe Adefeso-Olateju, an education policy consultant, is of the opinion that not all unapproved schools are wholly illegal entities. Some, she said, are simply in the process of applying for state approval.
She said: “As a concerned citizen, I can fully appreciate the position of the state ministries of education, and if I was a government official, I would probably want to shut these schools down immediately save for one ugly reality: parents continue to opt for these schools despite their knowledge that public schools (which in a state like Lagos are tuition free) are available!
“It is not that the parents who patronise these schools hate their children. On the contrary, they love their children and value education, wanting their offspring to have better life chances than they had,” she admitted in a recent publication.
With the rising population and the need for education, it could be debated if Lagos ‘low-cost’ schools have come to complement or supplant government’s effort in providing education. Nigeria with 10.5 million children without access to education is said to have the highest number of out of school children in the world, according to the 2015 Global Monitoring Report (GMR).
Nigeria recently joined the rest of the world to adopt the Sustainable Development Goals in New York. With goal four of the SDGs seeking to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, it is glaring that government alone may not be able to deliver on actualizing the goal. In a situation where the state of the economy discourages parents from patronising standard private schools, low cost schools tend to bridge the gap in catering to the educational need of low income earners.
