With over 12,000 of the 15,000 primary and secondary schools in Lagos State privately-owned, the education space is pluralist enough. To achieve all-round quality education, stakeholders are seeking further collaboration between public and private sectors, report KOFOWOROLA BELO-OSAGIE, OLUWATOYIN ADELEYE and MOJISOLA CLEMENT
Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s mantra that Lagos State must work for all irrespective of socio-economic background, tribe or religious leanings requires more collaboration between public and private sectors to come to pass. This is no less so in the education sector if researches conducted by the Developing Effective Private Education in Nigeria (DEEPEN) and the Education Sector Support Programme In Nigeria (ESSPIN), funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) are anything to go by.
The ESSPIN programme has been operating in Enugu, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Kwara and Lagos State since 2008, providing interventions in school improvement (teacher training, quality assurance, research, etc) for over 16,000 primary schools. The programme will wind up in 2017. Conversely, the DEEPEN, which started in 2013 and will run for five years, has focused on assessing the private education market and how to improve quality education delivery to school children, particularly those attending low-cost private schools.
Researches conducted by both programmes have thrown up issues affecting both the public and private sectors, which if not addressed would further worsen the fortunes of education in Nigeria.
The Private School space
The myth that public schools educate more children than private schools at the basic and secondary levels was challenged by the school census conducted by ESSPIN for the Lagos State government between 2008 and 2014, which revealed that there are 1.4 million children enrolled in the 12,098 private schools (as at 2010) compared to the 1.1 million enrolled in about 3,000 public schools. Further research by DEEPEN concluded in February 2015, showed that private schools have saved the government over N377 billion between 2010/11 and 2014/15 it would have cost to provide public education for the pupils enrolled in their schools. Ironically, 74 per cent of the private schools are not approved.
DEEPEN Team Leader, Dr Gboyega Ilusanya, said research also showed that the private school pupils were achieving more in terms of learning outcomes than their public school counterparts.
“Studies that have been conducted show that a lot of the schools that have not been approved actually present better learning achievement than their public school counterparts and the children are learning within and above the benchmark,” said Ilusanya at a dissemination programme for the research findings.
However, despite doing better in terms of learning outcomes, private schools are not still operating at the level of meeting international benchmarks in terms of learning. Another DEEPEN researcher, Yemi Adebayo said private schools are plagued by such problems as: Weak capacity of head teachers for mentoring teachers; poor teacher classroom processes; teachers being theoretical, not practical; lack of evidence of observation and monitoring of teachers internally; low level of supervision by government (only five percent of schools tested were inspected more than once a year); little consideration given to improving teaching practices to increase enrolment (only five per cent applied such measure; others just beautify their school surroundings); 70 per cent of schools do not invest in teacher training for a whole year (those that train spend less than N10,000 a year); among others.
Explaining why many of the schools might not get regular quality assurance visits from the government, Mrs Adeyinka Adeniyi, Head of Nursery and Primary Schools Approval Unit, who represented the Director General, Office of Quality Assurance, Lagos State Ministry of Education, Mrs Aderonke Soyombo at one of the dissemination workshops organised said the office does not inspect unapproved schools, urging private schools to get properly registered.
“The Lagos State government believes every child is important. Our office is partnering with any organisation that can bring quality education to Lagos State. We have monitoring and investigation unit that goes to schools to encourage them to register and we do not inspect schools that are not registered. I advise private schools to keep up the good work, seek to be the best, seek soft loans and employ qualified staff,” she said.
Faulting this stance however, Mrs Dada Ifejola, President of the Association for Formidable Educational Development (AFED), the umbrella group of low cost private schools, lamented that the registration process was too cumbersome. She said failing to visit so-called unapproved private schools meant that they would continue making mistakes. She urged the government to empower AFED to monitor the schools and ensure they meet standards.
She said: “Government should empower AFED to be able to carry out their duties. We cannot afford to ignore schools that are doing it wrong. We know the right quality of education for Nigerian schools and government says they do not inspect schools that are not registered. This means that you continue to let them waste away. So if they cannot do it, they should empower AFED to correct these schools and point them in the right direction. Meanwhile, AFED schools collect N5, 000 per term and even that amount is difficult for parents to pay. We are saving the government a lot in a year by engaging in private education so government needs to help us. Let there be a discriminatory amount for approval.”
Ilusanya said the grading system proposed by DEEPEN, which has been bought by the Lagos State government, could address the high level of unapproved schools and improve quality education service delivery to Nigerian children.
He said: “The instrument is a Star rating system, which allows schools to enter a kind of approval process at different levels of operation. Just as you have the five star hotels, three star hotels and others, you would now have five star schools, four star schools, etc. The stars will help parents and stakeholders know the services they are getting, but they are all providing basic services of learning. The graded approach allows a lot of challenged schools to understand their present standard and aim for a better one.
“A school may be a mushroom school but deliver quality education, our research has proven that. So the issue of a school being mushroom or backyard is only in the imagination. The only challenge we should consider are health and safety issues. We hope government can help in the regulatory function without necessarily compromising standards.”
Ilusanya said the tedious conditions for approval have made it difficult for schools to raise funds to improve their facilities.
Proprietor of Diamonds Mine School, Ifako/Ijaiye, Mrs Romoke Aderibigbe, agreed with him. She said: “Many schools will like to obtain loan from the bank, but the conditions they place on the loans are discouraging: conditions like you must have up to 30 per cent of the money you want to collect in your account, as your equity contribution, very high interest rates of over 30 per cent, the duration for pay back is also very short so obviously, it is only the long standing schools with high income that can afford it. They don’t make the loans easy for schools. If I had access to funds right now, I would improve the structure of my school.”
The Public School space
With interventions such as training to increase teacher competence, head teachers’ effectiveness, establishment of school improvement teams to monitor learning in schools, and school-based management committees to help communities take ownership of schools, many public schools in Lagos have been able to improve learning outcomes of their pupils.
However, surveys by ESSPIN between 2012 and 2014 show that there is still room for improvement. While public schools that have enjoyed interventions provided by ESSPIN and backed by the government have more competent teachers, effective head teachers, school development planning, and over all better quality than those that have not, the research still showed that school performance overall was on the decline. The researchers suggest that the decline may be as a result of increasing enrolment leading to overpopulation, and/or conflict.
This notwithstanding, Deputy national programme manager for ESSPIN, Mr Jake Ross, told The Nation that the government needs to sustain the achievement in its public schools by continually ploughing more resources into them.
“Well we have seen that Lagos State is actually on the right track in terms of improving the public primary education. Their teachers are becoming more competent and their head teachers much more effective in managing school academics and leadership. The local government officers and other authorities are helping with all of that but the state must devote more resources to continue professional development. Teachers and head teachers particularly must make sure the development is sustained especially in education,” Ross said.
He also advised the Lagos State government to promote teachers based on competency and not just improved qualification.
He said: “Right now, a lot of promotions in the country are based on qualifications. That would not help them decide if they are reliable. They should look at how competent the teacher is: meaning what behaviours do the teachers exhibit in the classroom when they are teaching children to make sure that all the children are understanding the lessons and they are all participating in it whether they are boys or girls, Christians or Muslims; whether they speak different tribal language or not; or whether they have learning difficulties, disabilities and whatever characteristics an individual child has, whether they are fast learners or slow learners.”
Speaking on the issue, Chairman, Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (LSUBEB), Dr Ganiyu Sopeyin, said the board would ensure that interventions continue to help public schools meet desired standard of quality.
“There are plans already in motion that would publicize itself soonest. We do not intend to abandon or not look after existing projects. We now have 1,300 teachers who are newly recruited. They will undergo different trainings. So if our old teachers retire, we are rest assured that we have new hands on deck that are not only capable but competent.
“Right now we want to be working on a ratio of 50 pupils to a teacher and we are getting there. We want our schools to look like private schools,” he said.
