Why banks must support repositioning efforts in education sector —Abdulkadir

The United Community School, Ilorin, Kwara State played host to the Managing Director and Chief Executive of Sterling Bank Plc, Mr Yemi Adeola to mark the world literacy day. In this interview with Chima Nwokoji, the Principal of the School Mr Ibrahim Abdulkadir commended the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for joining the global initiative and Sterling Bank for making the event memorable.

What is your view on the Central Bank of Nigeria’s decision to set a day aside to promote financial literacy?

We commend the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for this initiative which is also a global event.  It is a very good decision that should have been taken long ago considering what abounds in the developed countries of the world. But be it as it may, the CBN still deserves to be commended for this initiative. It will open the eyes of our students to issues around financial management and help them to become conversant with financial matters at an early age. If you catch them young, you will have responsible adults in the future. We need to also commend the Managing Director and Chief Executive of Sterling Bank Plc,  Mr Yemi Adeola, for coming all the way from Lagos to teach the students on financial literacy and management. The students will never forget the experience. He has in a special way, complemented the efforts of the CBN by also coming with other top management staff of the Bank to share their experience and knowledge with the students. To the students, Sterling Bank staff will remain their role models and this will inspire them to greatness. It was so interesting for the students to have bankers teach them. They really had fun and will never forget that in a hurry. Again, the distribution of books on financial literacy published by Sterling Bank will further consolidate the gains of the Financial Literacy Day as the students will have books to reference anytime they want to; and the gifts given by the MD of the Bank to the students will remain memorable.

How do you think that the challenges with financial literacy could be addressed?

By introducing the financial literacy into Nigerian schools and planning to adopt it as a subject in secondary schools, the bankers committee has set the pace. I think all the banks are trying but they should get more involved.Sterling Bank is already addressing this, not to talk of publishing and distributing books on financial literacy free to pupils and students. We need to encourage students to be favorably disposed to subjects like mathematics at an early stage. The Bank must be commended for this because l see this as an investment in the future of our children. Again, parents must encourage their children at home to see Mathematics as important as any other subject. They should also organize after school lessons for their children to complement what they have been taught in school. Schools must also ensure that they employ qualified mathematics teachers because that is also very key. You cannot give what you don’t have.

What is the way out of the challenges facing the industry?

Beyond government, there is a need for urgent intervention in the education sector by private sector because government cannot do it alone.  All banks should be fully involved in the education sector. Sterling Bank’s intervention in the sector will help to ameliorate some of the challenges in the sector.  Over the years, youth unemployment has remained one of the daunting challenges in Nigeria, as recent statistics show that over 25 million youths in the country are unemployed.  This abysmal statistic is linked to, among others, the issue of employability as even where jobs abound, the lack of competence to handle them arises. This problem can be attributed to the declining quality of education in the country. All this has necessitated the need for private sector involvement in the sector. The intervention of private sector operators such as Sterling Bank will contribute to resolving the problem of unemployment. It will help Nigerians create their own businesses.

The capacity issue requires a deliberate and conscious effort of the concerned parties – be it teachers, administrators, owners, regulators among others, to develop them, imbibe the right attitude and a paradigm shift in their value system. There is also the problem of service delivery which I should have mentioned earlier. Stakeholders should be conscious of the manner they deliver service and the quality. Customers in this sphere are open to alternatives, both locally and internationally to satisfy their educational appetite. Stakeholders should also hold administrators accountable and demand quality. These days, vibrant Parent- Teachers associations (PTAs) are springing up, getting involved and active in the manner their institutions of interest are run. What doesn’t get measured, they say, doesn’t get done. So, providers of educational facilities should be held accountable for their products.

How would you describe the involvement of Sterling Bank in Education?

Each time l read or hear over the news what Sterling Bank is doing in the area of education; how much it is supporting other schools, l pray that one day, the Bank would extend similar courtesies to us. I was privileged to have an engagement with the Group Head in charge of education at the Bank, Mr. Shina Atilola and you would marvel at what the Bank has been able to do in the area of education. I was told that the One Education Group created by the Bank  is less than 3 years old and the Bank has been able to do a whole lot of things. For instance, the Bank has adopted a public school for mentoring and infrastructural upgrade; established Financial Literacy Clubs in schools for free, with a combined population of students in excess of 10,000. I was informed that the Bank is signing on more schools as it continues to build capacity of the trainers. The Bank’s Group Head also informed me that Sterling Bank has deployed school management systems and payment gateways for free to schools. The benefit of a web pay system cannot be overemphasized. They range from completeness and accountability of collections to proper documentation and quality service delivery in schools. It cost so much to deploy but the Bank is giving it to schools for free. I am also aware that Sterling Bank has sponsored a Mathematics competition in conjunction with Caleb Group of schools and partnered with Audax Code School to train over 1000 children during the last summer break on Coding and Computer skills.

What is your assessment of how teachers are being treated in Nigeria?

Again, let me ask you a question. Did you see what the Managing Director of Sterling Bank did after his lecture? He did present various gift items to the teachers of the school to show how much he appreciated them because you cannot have bright students as we have in this school without the support of the teachers. So we are happy that the teachers of the school were honored and celebrated by the Bank. This will re-energise  and motivate them to do more.

The introduction of Teacher-Go-On-Leave (TGOL) initiative whereby on teacher’s day, teachers in selected schools take the back seat while Sterling Bank staff through its Sterling Volunteer Scheme, show their support to teachers by taking the lectures for that day shows how much respect the Bank has for teachers.

What are the challenges facing teachers in Nigeria?

You and I know that there are a plethora of challenges facing teachers. The first that quickly comes to mind is their standard of living. Teachers’ standard of living is a resultant effect of their remuneration. I grew up to know the popular maxim which says that “Teachers’ reward is in heaven”. I don’t understand why someone will work on earth and you ask him to go to heaven for his reward.  They are not being well remunerated for their painstaking efforts and services. Their take home pay is below standards the world over. While remuneration has taken the front row, disrespect and misplaced value system in Nigeria is another monster. In Ghana, teachers are more respected ahead of other professionals. This used to be the case in Nigeria, but since our values changed, the teachers were the first to take the hit. Over the years, they have suffered from other issues bothering on lack of teaching resources, slash in consumable budgets, and reduced rate of hiring of teachers, poor teacher training facilities, little training or none at all, undue criticism as they are made to take the blame for poor performances by children. Teachers also suffer undue parent’s engagements, use of outdated teaching methods, lack of exposure to best practices, poor working conditions. These and other challenges have left the teaching profession in a less desirable state and have contributed in no small way to the fallen standard of our education.

What is your view on the influx of privately owned schools in Nigeria? Is it because the public schools have failed?

I will not say that public schools have failed and the establishment of private schools in the country is not a problem either. You saw the performances of our students during the class with the MD of Sterling Bank. He was so impressed that he gave various gift items to the students. The student that won the best gift item, Tobi Adeniyi is one of our best students and we are confident that 99 percent of our SS3 students will pass exceedingly in the upcoming examination.  What we need in the public school is just infrastructure and better remuneration for our staff because we have better trained teachers in public schools. The influx of private school is not a problem, but at least there must be a minimum level of control to ensuring that those coming into the sector are not only interested in the financial gains. They must put in place adequate infrastructure to ensure that the students get quality education and value for the money spent by parents. So government must set standards and ensure that any school that falls short of standards set is not allowed to operate. The ministry of education at the federal and state levels has so much to do in this regard by ensuring constant monitoring of schools so that they comply with the set rules.

What would you attribute the success story of the school to so far?

I am proud to say that we have some of the best teachers in this school. We have teachers who are vast in their areas of specialization; teachers who are very intelligent, dedicated and are always going the extra mile to ensure that the students are well taught. The management has also been very fantastic because running the school requires people with experience, people who are passionate about what they do and provide the means to attain the best. We devote additional time to prepare our students when external examinations approach to ensure that they have excellent results.