By Ndubuisi Orji
The Principal, Phidel College, Idimu, Lagos, one of the outstanding private schools in the country, Mr. Benard Akintelure, has said that the lack of standard is killing education in the country.
Speaking, in an interview, Akintelure also said the inability to achieve the objectives of national education policy was not helping matters. He also spoke on the efforts of his school to produce quality students, who can compete with the best anywhere in the world.
Excerpts:
How would you evaluate the state of education in the country?
The standard is not up to expectation, in terms of curriculum designed in Nigeria’s national policy on education. I want to believe that we have not achieved what the developers had in mind. We are operating 6-3-3-4 system of education. The understanding was that after Basic 9, which is JSS 3, those that can continue based on their performance could proceed to senior secondary school; those that cannot would have identified their skill and their strength, then they would be separated, to learn vocational skills. But the reverse is the case. Education is not properly funded and so, the facilities are not there.
For instance, carpentry, hair-dressing, bricklaying, tie and dye, photography and a lot of trade subjects, require equipment. How many schools have them? So, you find out that at JSS 3, the entire JSS 3 students would still proceed to senior secondary school, so the purpose is defeated. We have not achieved the policy. So, that is a fundamental problem.
Aside from that, malpractices have not been totally erased. It has been reduced to a large extent though, with the introduction of technology and what have you. Take JAMB, for instance, the idea of Computer Based Test (CBT) has reduced high rate of malpractice because you go there; as you do it, the computer will give you result, unlike when they were shading and a lot of malpractices took place. Parents too are not helping matters. Some parents are not helping their children. They sometimes get involved in malpractices to help their children. During exams, some parents hire mercenaries to write exams for their children. Some parents are in a hurry to get their children into the university or foreign schools, when the children are not mature for it. Parents are in a hurry; it affects the standard.
What does the proliferation of private schools – primary, secondary and tertiary – portend for education?
Some of those schools are not supposed to be in existence, if the paper works that we followed to register our school is duly implemented.
How do you mean?
Yes, Phidel College was established in 2013. As the pioneer principal, I was involved in the process of getting approval for the school. When I went through the requirements given by the Ministry of Education, I was asking myself, why should those mushroom schools still be in existence? For instance, before you can have a school now, they expect that the place to be purpose built. That is, the structure must be for that purpose, not a four-bedroom flat converted to a school. They expect the school to have a playground. Some schools are even sharing apartment with tenants. Where will they get playground?
You’ve been in operation for three years and last year, you enrolled your first students in WAEC. What was your result like?
Fantastic, though they were few – four students. Why did we have four students? It boils down to what we are discussing. Our school has been approved. At that time, we had only four that were promoted to SSS3, to write WASCE. I had offers from three schools to bring external candidates to me, schools around that have not been approved that could not present students for the exam. They were ready to pay any amount, pleading that I should absorb them since I have the licence. I said no. I want to present students who are good, who I am sure of their morals, who I am sure of their intelligence, who I am sure are prepared for the exams. I rejected the offer. I did not mind to present four students only and I thank God, the least among the four had six distinctions unaided. If I was after money, I would have accommodated students from other schools.
How affordable is Phidel Collage?
Well, education is not cheap. However, before you place a charge, you consider what you have, the service you are offering. For us, our services are high, equal to what we have in Grade ‘A’ schools in Lagos, even in the whole of Nigeria. What the best schools offer is what we do. But we cannot charge what they charge because of location. Our fees are relatively cheap; they are relatively affordable. We have secondary here and we have nursery and primary school elsewhere. If you want to register a child in JSS 1, for instance, there are procedures. You obtain the admission form and then we test the child.
What are your fees like?
For boarding house, it ranges from N400, 000 to N450,000 per term. For day student, it is between N150, 000 and N180, 000.
So, with this kind of charges, how does an ordinary man send his child to a school like yours?
There is a policy here, where we offer scholarship. In our school, the overall best student in the test is offered scholarship. In that programme, if the child of the carpenter is the most brilliant, he gets the scholarship. We encourage the brilliant ones.
Our school is a place where students are taught well, using all the required and necessary equipment. I told you that boarding house costs N450,000 per term and that child spends three months in the hostel.
Out of the N450, 000, boarding takes N180,000. If you are paying N180, 000 to be accommodated here, it means that you are paying about N2,00 per day. Yes, N180, 000 divided by 90 days is about 2, 000 per day. The child will have his/her three square meals in the hostel. It is even more than three meals, as they have what is called Light Cap when they are having their prep. They are given either tea or coffee, with either snacks or biscuits. You know at that age, children need food to grow. So, you can’t say you compel them strictly on three square meals.
Now, what is the quality of your teachers like? Because the easiest place to get a job is the private school?
I agree that the easiest place to get a job is private school and that is why the standard is not up to what we expect. People that compromise standards are the ones that give the education system problem. At Phidel College, we don’t compromise standards. There are requirements for anybody to teach at the secondary school level, that person must be a graduate with 2/2. You must be a professional teacher. All the teachers here are professionals. They read Education, which empowered them to have the methodology and the technical know-how. You may be a graduate in Chemistry, for instance, and know all the contents of Chemistry, but you don’t know how to deliver for a child to assimilate. If you read Chemistry as a course without education, there is an allowance for you to do Postgraduate Diploma (PGD) in Education, where you will now learn the methodology.
In our school, apart from those in administration, who don’t need qualification in Education, all the teachers are qualified. They majored in Education. In fact, 70 per cent of them have Master’s degree. We cannot compromise on standard in employing teachers. Some of our teachers have the experience of IGTSC, SAT and TOEFL.
We are also concerned about the morals of the students first, then we also back it up with religion. This is a Christian school, but we also teach Islamic aspect of the curriculum for those that want, but those that are under our tutelage in boarding house attend church. Basically, they attend the Redeemed Christian Church of God, not only on Sundays. On Tuesday, they attend Bible study.
We try to nurture them in the way of the Lord. The Muslims among them pray on Friday. We have Muslim teachers that handle that.
In the area of morals, as I mentioned earlier, we have a programme called Poise and Etiquette. We have consultants coming to talk about different etiquettes.
How do you cope with the pressure that comes from parents?
There is one thing I know. If you are known for something, stand by it and parents would adjust. I always spell out my rules and stick to my rules. Yes, there are pressures and influences from parents in all areas, not even about admission alone. However, when they know you for your rules; when they know that you won’t compromise, they will adjust. I know parents for that.
Apart from the academic programme, what is your school doing to ensure that these students learn trade and handiwork, as getting jobs after school is not easy?
We have a lot of trade subjects. We call them entrepreneurship – three subjects. In this school, we have Photography. We have Data Processing and we have Catering Craft. They even do tie and dye. Now, at junior level, it is possible that you might have indicated your interest or the teacher must have identified your strong point. There are about 35 vocational subjects, but the policy as regards the duration for the day, the time limit and number of weeks for the term will not permit any school to make available all these subjects. So, you have to pick some, like I mentioned earlier. When we encourage them to do it, they work on it; they even do the exam. So, in future, you never can tell where such can be useful.