How private schools destroy education

ONE of the most popular sayings of private school owners is that “the worst private school is far better than a public school.” It is obvious that the apparent falling standard of education, especially at primary and secondary school levels, could have encouraged private school proprietors to make that claim. The continuous worsening and falling standard of public schools is the reason parents, especially the elite, to establish private schools in a bid to meet the demand of parents for their children to be well-educated. Guardians and parents, irrespective of their socio-economic status, want to give their children quality education which will add value to the degrees their children acquire subject to budget constraints.  Our public schools lack everything ranging from infrastructure, qualitative or well trained teachers, good laboratories and libraries, updated syllabuses, classroom management and conducive atmosphere, to mention but a few. But the question is, what benefit do these private schools bring to our nation? Again, what makes our public schools to be relegated by the elite and even some commoners despite the fact that our leaders and elite attended such schools? Every parent or guardian wants to enroll his or her ward in private schools with the assumption that they provide quality education, unlike public ones.

Private schools contribute immensely to drilling pupils/students to learn western education by heart compared to public ones, but on the other hand, they tarnish the image of education in the country, especially by considering and keeping education as a business which is the dream of many proprietresses or proprietors. Their main concern is to earn money and not what to give. They turn education into a business, not valuing education on its own. As someone who taught English and Literature for almost a decade in various private schools, I have witnessed firsthand, so many obstacles to the provision of quality education to pupils/students and how parents are hoodwinked. One needs to critically observe how examination malpractice, indiscipline, lack of moral uprightness, corruption among others emanating from the so-called private schools which, today, negatively affect tertiary education as a whole. Nowadays, examinations remain the best yardstick for assessing and evaluating the performances of students. This make some private schools to become lucrative business ventures; they get students to pass examinations by any means.

I recall vividly how, some years back, a friend of mine along with his coursemates from ABU Zaria came to Kano and registered for JAMB. I asked them what happened and they answered thus: “This is a business. If you’ve someone that can pay enough, we will write JAMB for him. We take him for registration and we thumbprint while his picture is blurred so that he or she can’t be recognised well. Sometimes, we pay some centers to favour us. We do the same for WAEC and NECO, and Kano is the best place for such a lucrative business. We do only for science students, and we connive with private schools to do so.” This reminds me how invigilators charge huge amounts of money, especially for English and Mathematics papers during SSCE as students pay N40,000 and above as registration fees for external exams. One may recall how someone in Kano ran away with the registration funds of hundreds of candidates before the actual examination. Several centres and private schools are opened daily in order to assist students to pass exams thereby generating more income from parents.

After finishing my NYSC, I went back to the school I taught before, and it was exactly during the SSCE. Two friends of mine (English and Economics teachers) were sacked simply because they refused to assist students to cheat. As a vice principal, I was among the management staff of the school I worked for before. When questioning the proprietor on that, he said: “They (the sacked teachers) wanted my students to fail examination so that next year we shall get low turnout of students. I want my school to get more candidates by next year, especially external ones. I will do so to add you salary. Just work hard, get me more students and forget about them.” Many instances happened in various schools where I taught. At times, teachers were forced to write for students who had poor handwriting or could not properly copy what was written on the blackboard. To cut it short, there are people who have offices where they register candidates and post them to private schools with the agreement that the candidates will get what they want during exams. Some specialise only in external examinations. Indeed, the existence of private schools in the country contributes to the worsening education and brings about lack of respect, indiscipline and corruption in our dear country.

• Garba writes from in Kano via [email protected]

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