Education stakeholders in Abia and Imo have expressed deep concern over the exorbitant fees charged by private schools in the country.
A cross-section of the respondents blamed the phenomenon on the lack of effective monitoring of schools by government regulatory agencies at all levels.
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In Abia, the people blamed the commercialisation of education by private schools on ineffective regulatory policy framework and weak monitoring mechanisms by agencies of the government.
They spoke in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), saying that the onus was on the government to check the unhealthy phenomenon.
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They called on the state government to evolve an effective monitoring mechanism to ensure that private schools deliver quality service to their pupils and students.
Osondu Kalu, a father of two, said that effective monitoring of private schools by the relevant authorities would help keep them in check and ensure quality education.
Mr Kalu said that issues of unqualified teachers, substandard curricula, and uneven education quality had become a disturbing trend in private schools..
He said that most parents developed a preference for private schools because of the failure of the government to upgrade the educational facilities in public schools.
Mr Kalu said that the school fees in highly rated private schools are high and beyond the reach of an average Nigerian parent.
According to him, this unfortunate trend among private schools with exorbitant fees ought to be addressed by the government.
Mr Kalu, therefore, called for effective monitoring of the private schools by the relevant authorities to ensure that the standard for quality education was maintained.
A civil servant, Dorine Ahamefule, said that some private schools were set up with the primary objective of making money rather than imparting knowledge to young minds.
Mrs Ahamefule said that the unusual focus on money instead of imparting knowledge had become a serious challenge, especially given their inability to hire qualified teachers or pay well.
She said that parents should feel the effect of the high fees they pay on their children’s academic performance.
Mrs Ahamefule also said that paying teachers well translates to building a highly motivated teachers staff and better productivity.
“However, this comes with a downside, where the fees do not always correlate with the quality of education delivered, especially when schools employ unqualified teachers.
“This practice can lead to substandard education, undermining the value parents expect from their investment.
“The employment of unqualified teachers is often a cost-saving measure, which can compromise the educational quality and outcomes.
“This scenario raises concerns about the commercialisation of education, where profit sometimes outweighs educational quality,” she said.
A disability advocate, Ikenna Ebiri, urged parents and guardians not to equate high fees with high quality, saying that some affordable schools might offer quality education.
Mr Ebiri said that in spite of the high fees, not all private schools invest adequately in infrastructure or human resources, leading to disparity in the quality of education.
He said that with the proliferation of private schools, maintaining a competitive edge while ensuring affordability and quality is challenging.
Mr Ebiri, therefore, called for an enhanced regulatory framework to ensure all schools meet a minimum standard in teacher qualifications, facilities, and curriculum.
He called on the government to make education less elitist through scholarships, waivers to private schools and remodelling of the school system.
Some parents and education experts also urged the federal and state governments to support private schools in order to lessen the financial burden they transfer to parents.
They further called on the government to introduce free education in public schools.
They urged the government to make public schools more attractive in order to discourage parents and guardians from patronising substandard and expensive private schools.
The Chairman of the Parent-Teacher Association, Holy Rosary Secondary School, Umuahia, Edward Okoro, said the high operational costs contribute to exorbitant fees charged by private schools.
Mr Okoro said that most private schools with a population between 50 and 100 students might not be able to cover their expenses in running the school, including payment of teachers’ salaries.
“Government has a lot to do and one of them is to make education free in primary and secondary schools.
“If the public schools are renovated and equipped with qualified teachers, many parents will begin to patronise them, instead of taking their children and wards to private schools.
“And when that is done, the exorbitant fees by private schools will no longer be there, which might cause some of them to close down,” he said.
Also, Rose Uzoka, the dean, College of Education, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, urged the government to subsidise private schools to check high charges.
Ms Uzoka, a professor, said that most of the private schools “pay tangible amount” of taxes to the government and needed to recover the money through school fees and other charges.
She said: “I doubt if there is any private secondary school in the South-east that charges as much as N3 million or N4 million as school fees.
“The government is not doing enough to help these private schools, but that should not be an excuse to exploit parents in the name of school fees.
“There are different ways that the government can support the private schools to lessen the burden of exorbitant school fees”.
A parent, Kalu Ukpai, lamented that some of the private schools charge exorbitant fees but employ unqualified teachers, whom they pay poor salaries.
Mr Ukpai said that the high cost of education has become a serious concern, especially now that things are generally tough in the country.
“Many families are finding it extremely difficult to make ends meet.
“How, then, can they cope with the high school fees, especially for those with many children?
“But, I am happy for what Governor Alex Otti is doing in the education sector now in Abia, especially with the remodelling of public schools and his plans to introduce free basic education next year.
“The governor’s move will bring back the lost glory in public schools and pull people out from the private schools,” he said.
In Imo, some private secondary school teachers lamented that they were being underpaid, saying that their salaries and other emoluments were not commensurate with their output and school fees paid by the students.
Oluchukwu Ferdinand, who holds a Higher National Diploma in Education and teaches in a private secondary school, said that her employer always referred to the HND/BSc dichotomy as his reason for underpaying his teaching staff.
Ms Ferdinand said that the attitude explained why the proprietor employed only HND and Ordinary National Diploma holders, adding that this was affecting the teachers’ approach to their duties.
Another teacher, Uchechi Okoro, said that the lack of government measures to checkmate the activities of private schools was also a factor.
Ms Okoro said: “I’m one of the 15 teachers in the secondary school where I teach, seven are regular staff members, while eight are youth corps members, who get a paltry allowance to augment what they receive from the federal government.
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“But because nobody checks these things, they just keep happening and there is little or nothing the teachers can do about it,“ she said.
She argued that changing corps members annually was affecting the students performance negatively and called on the government not to allow inexperienced corps members to take over the core duties of teachers as assigned in the curriculum.
A head teacher, George Ojiaku, blamed the low remuneration of teachers in private schools on the government’s failure to provide adequate remuneration for teachers in public schools.
Mr Ojiaku said that since the government sets the standard for the private sector, “it would be difficult to expect perfection” from the latter.
The Proprietress of Sound Foundation Academy, Emekuku, Owerri, Chinwendu Osuji, said that the location of a school determines the fees charged which, in turn, determines the remuneration of teachers.
Mrs Osuji called on the government to establish modalities for equitable school fees charged by private schools.
(NAN)
