By Godwin Tyonongu
Education in the country can only be accessed maximally by the poor if government declares it free and further subsidises the resource materials.
This recommendation came to the fore by the proprietor, Sky Limit Studies Centre, Mararaba, in Nasarawa state, Mr. Adepoju Oluseye, during a chat with Blueprint.
Oluseye, who runs a tutorial centre for students preparing for external examinations such as JAMB, NECO, WAEC, NATEB and GCE in Mararaba and other campuses in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), said “when school materials are bought at exorbitant prices, the proprietors of schools have no option than to put it as running cost and the resultant effect is for parents to pay in form of fees when enrolling their wards in school.”
According to him, “you can’t pay salaries only for people to clap hands for you at the end.”
He noted that if the private schools operators “can have access to cheap education resource materials, it would reduce the cost of education.”
Oluseye said the question of having mushroom schools all over the place was informed by the harsh economic situation in the country, which had compelled many parents to go for any kind of school they can afford for their children.
He was, however, quick to state that in a place like Nasarawa; “every standard school has government approval, noting that, authorities have been working underground over the issue of standards and that sooner or later, the big whip would have descended on the sub-standard schools littered all over the place.”
On the level of standard between private and government owned schools, the educationist observed that “it is even in government schools that most of the irregularities emanate; we can only talk of standard there in schools well-funded.”
“Others keep on having strikes over non-payment of wages, making the students to stay at home perpetually. It is only in government schools you can regulate; government comes to supervise and control, to see that things are done according to the ordinances.
“But most private schools are good standards and they perform very well. On TV you can see them perform well in competitions; the parents who pay their fees insist on getting the best from the teachers to justify their spending,” he said.
On the choice of subjects to offer in school, the proprietor warned parents not to interfere into the selection of courses for their wards rather it should be on the ward’s passion and future ambition.
