Factors influencing parents in choosing school for wards

FINDINGS have revealed many factors behind parents choice of primary and secondary education for their children and wards, in Lagos and Ogun States particularly.

While some parents prefer to enroll their children in high-profile schools with virtually necessary facilities and human resources for effective teaching and learning, majority patronise the low-cost schools.

However, the minimum standard for every primary school set by the Lagos State government, is that it should have at least nine classrooms and four special rooms, a fire extinguisher, a demarcated playground, a library, computer room, sick bay, a head teacher’s office and an hygienic environment.

Also, a secondary school is expected to have a minimum of six classrooms, three laboratories, a library, computer room, staff room, principal’s office, indoor games, art studio, home economics room, basic technology workshop and a school hall.

Similarly, Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN’s) set standard is that a teacher in approved schools must have a requisite educational background and licensed by the council.

But investigations have revealed that while some schools met the standards and even surpassed them, numerous others in the two states did not meet same standards.

Observation has shown that almost every street in Lagos, for instance, has at least one private school, especially a nursery/primary school, this situation is true in Sango\Ota axis of Ogun State.

Further findings by the Nigerian Tribune has linked the choice of schools by parents for their children to the size of their income and earnings, schools’ proximity to their homes, as well as non-availability of public schools around them.

In Nigeria, an average income of government workers and a few others in the private sector is less than N50, 000 monthly.

And so while many parents, especially in Lagos and Ogun states, cannot afford such amount monthly because of the high cost of living in the two states, some others yet have no source of income because they are not economically engaged.

Speaking to the Nigerian Tribune on this issue, Mrs Olanrewaju Subomi, a parent who resides in Sango explained that standard schools were very expensive.

According to Olanrewaju whose children attend Sango High School, a public secondary school in the area, the school fees for high-profile schools are on the high side.

Citing examples of schools in the axis, equipped with best of facilities, she said enrollment of a child into Junior Secondary School 1 of any of them would cost between N100, 000 and N150, 000 per term.

But in Sango High School, she said about N10, 000 would be enough to register a child into the same class without subsequently having to pay additional fee every other term.

“The school being a public school might lack air conditioned classrooms, equipped sports centre, sick bay, standard classrooms or a school bus, but it has qualified teachers who were employed by the Ogun State government. As a trader and widow, it is difficult for me to take my children to the so-called standard schools because of the huge costs attached to them.”

When the Nigerian Tribune visited Sango High School located along Ijoko road, some classes were dilapidated with many worn-out chairs and tables.

However, some parents would prefer to take their children to other private schools that do not charge high fees

Mr Lateef Abiodun a factory worker who earns N47, 000 monthly is one of the parents in this fold

According to him, though some schools might not have sick bays, equipped sports centre or air conditioned classrooms, they have decent classrooms and good chairs and tables for students.

Another parent, Mr Mukaila Alatise a Lagos-based businessman, said he had never enrolled any of his children in high-profile schools as he himself attended a community school.

According to him, his three children attended a low-profile school in Jankara-Ojokoro, Ijaiye area of Lagos, adding that two of them are graduates and doing well in their chosen fields.

He said a family friend’s male child who attended a high-profile private school in Ikeja, performed poorly in last year’s West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE), adding that the boy’s father was not pleased about the outcome of the WASSCE’s results.

Alatise believed that the level of commitment by teachers, parents and the students themselves mattered more than huge fees being charged by some private schools or even the facilities being paraded by some of them.

Nigerian Tribune’s findings also revealed the issue of inadequate and incompetent manpower during a visit to some private schools in Ijaiye-Ojokoro, Agege and Alimosho local government areas of Lagos State and those in Sango-Ota in Ogun State, though many of them have decent classrooms and structures.

Speaking to the Nigerian Tribune, a school proprietor, who preferred anonymity explained that employment of graduates as teachers is mostly difficult because of high salary expectation.

According to him, some of private schools recruit corps members.

“At my school, we constantly liaise with the NYSC Sango-Ota office to ensure we get fresh corps members as older ones round off their service to the nation.

“That way, we remain in business by spending less. If you want to employ a graduate, they will be demanding for N60, 000 or above to work for you. If you have five graduate teachers, that is N300, 000 every month.

“But an NYSC corps member will collect between N10, 000 and N15, 000 monthly since he or she is observing the mandatory one-year service. The N60, 000 you will spend on one graduate teacher will pay the salary of six or four NYSC corps members.

“This is how some of us try to remain competitive amidst the high-profile schools which have all the basic facilities which most rich parents look out for while enrolling their children.

“If you try to convince corps members to stay after their one-year service, they will be asking for N50, 000 or more. How do you pay such salaries when you don’t charge more than N25, 000 while admitting new students to secondary school?

“For primary school, my school charges N12,000 for entry into primary one. You cannot increase these fees because many of the parents will withdraw their children. Even when the fees are cheap, most of the parents of these students still struggle to pay until their children are sent home.”

Reacting to the issue, the National President, Association for Formidable Educational Development (AFED), Mr Orji Kanu, concurred that truly most of the parents whose children attend their members’ schools are low-income earners.

He said some AFED member-schools, for instance, charged as low as N10, 000 school fee per student per term, but argued that they are not substandard in the impartation of knowledge to their pupils

Kanu noted that some schools would have to provide education for children of low-income earners who do not have the means to send their children and wards to expensive schools or even the privilege to send them to tuition-free government schools, perhaps because of distance.

According to him, all schools just like hospitals or hotel business are never of the same standard, adding what every school needs is just to meet a certain standard, and then improve on it for desirable results.

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