‘Govt shouldn’t make taxes on schools a big source of revenue’

Mr Nosakhare Ogbeide is the chairman of Private Schools Association in Edo State. In this interview with BANJI ALUKO, he speaks on the tax burden placed on private schools in Edo State, reasons he left United States to come and establish a private school in Nigeria, the nation’s education policy and other issues.

You once settled down in the United States, where you were a teacher. Why did you relocate to Nigeria to start a school?

I have always had the interest of making a change in the educational system of my country. I’m a product of the University of Benin, where I studied Mathematics Education. While I was in the US, I was always thinking about how I could make a change in Nigeria. At the completion of school, I travelled out to get a career in teaching. While I was away, half of me was here. When I got the opportunity, I didn’t waste time.

So you left a lucrative job in the US to come and start a school in Nigeria?

For me, the concern was what would make me happy. Doing something here was what I believe would give me that satisfaction.

How easy was it adjusting to the Nigerian system after getting used to that of the US?

It was not quite easy; it was a transition programme. I consulted my wife, who encouraged me to give it a try. The first place I got was a residential apartment in the GRA. That was 1998, but the school did not actually take off until 2001. I took a year without pay in the US to come in. A year later, my wife who is also a school teacher, took a year without pay to join me. We shuttled between the US and Nigeria for about five years before we finally settled down.

So what facilities do you have in your school right now?

Between the two schools we are running, we have about 1,000 students and about 100 staff. We have nursery, primary and secondary schools. We have done well graduating decent students and the school is a centre for NECO and WASSCE.

How difficult or easy is it running a private school in Edo State?

The problem is government’s rude intervention in terms of unnecessary charges. Private schools are now major source of revenue for government. Government has refused to understand the fact that the private schools are helping them to provide service to people they are obligated to provide service to. Government should not make the burden of taxes on schools a big source of revenue. How many of the schools are actually making money? In Anambra State, government gives private schools computers, money to buy buses and other incentives. In Edo State, we pay an annual renewal of about N225,000. There are three categories. Category A pays about N450,000; category B that I belong to pays about N185,000 and N225,000; the last category, which is the rural area, they pay about N75,000. We still pay property tax. I have a personal income tax of nothing less than N440,000 per year. There is no yardstick for giving me that. They just look at you and throw a figure at you. If you try not to pay, they start harassing you, bring lock and keys and people from the Internal Revenue Board. People always identify with the few schools making money, but the percentage of private schools that have succeeded in Edo State is not up to 30 per cent. The schools have to pay rent, pay staff and so on. That is why some of the schools pay their workers as low as N10,000.

What are the challenges facing primary and secondary school education in Nigeria?

They are not different from the general challenges facing other people in other sectors. The schools are not properly funded and there is no proper implementation of programmes as designed by government. We have a wonderful national policy on education that is well written, but at the implementation stage, there is no proper inspectorate division to focus on following it. The result is that there are few students that can compete favourably at the international level.

One of the problems is the age we start school here. It is not necessary for a two or three-year-old to start school. That age is not appropriate to be under any structured programme. They are ages children are supposed to play and be exposed to varieties of other things. My observation is that most Nigerian pupils get to first grade at age five instead of six. This is not helping the pupils. The brain at that age is not matured enough for academic challenges. They begin to manage and manage till they get to grade six. By the time they get to JSS 1, they are already overloaded and cannot perform well. They end up graduating without being able to compete at the highest level.

It appears primary and secondary education is largely in the hands of private schools. Is this good for the system?

Government has handed off because they can no longer fund it. The problem is the way the government going about it. If they are going to allow private schools to largely take over, they must be able to provide a mechanism for monitoring. There are schools around that are not supposed to be schools and where nothing is happening. Many of them are not complying with standard in terms of teaching, staff recruitment and others. They are just moving the students from one class to another. The kind of training they give students in these schools is never good enough to allow them pass Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), WASSCE and other examinations. We have so many students in that group today. They are not going forward and don’t want to learn a trade. They are cut off and they end up becoming members of the Community Development Association and what have you.

Do you share the view that government has no business managing schools?

Government has business with the entire education system; it is funding that is their problem. What government needs to do is to manage the ones they can manage and privatise the rest. They just need to put up a good inspectorate system. We will not meet up with global standard of education if government is not involved.

Do you subscribe to the teaching of technical subjects for self-sufficiency?

It is better and that is why they designed the policy like that. Between JSS 1 and 3, a student could learn stuffs such as arts and crafts, repair of cell phone and so on. Going to JSS3 to SSS1, you will know if a student has the capacity to continue with the general academics. This don’t have to continue to do Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry all the way. This is what makes Japan, Germany and other developed countries what they are. Some students are not meant to go all the way. Once the student is groomed from SSS 1 to SSS 3, he is already skilled. They were the people who worked in NITEL, AT&P and so on. That was the essence of schools such as the Benin Technical School. We are supposed to have as many as 40 of such schools in this state. The truth is that some of the children have interest in these things but nobody is developing them towards that direction.