‘If you want to grow a nation, develop education sector’

Alhaji Tajudeen Ibrahim is the proprietor of FUNTAJ International School in Asokoro, Abuja. In this interview with BOLASHADE ADEBOWALE, he speaks on what Nigeria needs to do to develop its education sector on which, according to him, the success of the nation rests, among other issues.

GIVE us a peek into your background?

I was born in 1960. My parents are still very much alive, and they reside in Ibadan. I was not born with silver spoon in my mouth because my father was just coming out of civil service as a forest guard in our hometown, Ikire, in Osun State; he only relied on his salary, and both my parents struggled to make ends meet. But I gained quite a lot of inspiration from my father. He is a very hardworking man who never gives up on anything. His watchword is ‘work hard and you will make it; just believe in yourself’; so I would say I really gained a lot from that.

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I went to Omolewa Nursery and Primary School in Ibadan, after all the sojourn of my father politically where he was (reduced) to ground zero during the ‘Operation Wet e’ in the UPGA days. It was big trouble to get out of the village and come to Ibadan. Later, I went to Children Home School and spent a short period there before going to Ibadan Grammar School. I also attended Adeola Odutola College, in Ijebu-Ode. I didn’t complete my Higher School Certificate (HSC) before I proceeded to America where I obtained my first and second degrees –first in Civil Engineering in Washington University, second in Construction Management before I came back to Nigeria.

What was the first business you ventured into upon your arrival?

I worked with my father in his construction company. As a civil engineer I had to help him shape up his company. I had to eject some new ideas into the company, which was quite challenging; but later we started getting contracts. We constructed political parties’ offices in Ondo and Oyo states. Eventually, we got a very big contract to build one of the three primary secretariats under ACON Nigeria Limited in Abuja. He was the MD of the company then, and I was the contracts director.

When did you eventually venture into education business and what prompted you into that?

FUNTAJ came out of inspiration from my sojourn in the construction industry where I now knew that there are challenges doing government contracts. If you have pride, you might not be able to survive in the sense that bureaucracy is not something I would say I enjoyed, even working with my father. I have passion to make sure children get the best out of their lives, so education came to my mind. Fortunately for me, I have a wife I could put on line to run the school because I am an engineer but I have passion for education. Luckily for me, she shared the passion with me; so we formed the school. FUN stands for her name, Funke, and TAJ for Tajudeen. FUNTAJ International School is 22 years old today.

What were the initial challenges you faced establishing the school?

It wasn’t challenging because it (came) at a period when private schools were not doing very well, and we had a lot of elites all over Abuja yearning for qualitative school. It was a very interesting story. We started with 10 classrooms in Asokoro. We had a focus, and of course it’s the darling school in Abuja.

What would you say gives FUNTAJ School an edge among its contemporaries?

Our belief is to make sure that whatever talent you have, we help you bring it out and develop it – not only about education; our orientation is to give the child a total package in terms of moral confidence to stand on his own. Our alumni base is very outstanding, and I’m really proud of what they have done over the 22 years.

Many teachers in private schools today are those who took to teaching as a last option. What is your approach to teaching staff recruitment?

We are noted for standard, because when you get a qualitative teacher, you get a qualitative student. We don’t compromise on the standard we have set, and that has really spoken for us till today. We ensure total quality in whatever teacher we employ, and they also go through rigorous process before they are employed. We train and retrain them.

Talking about examination malpractice, private schools have been seen to be major culprits. What do you say to this?

I hear some schools do it, but it will never happen here. We’ve seen cases where parents would come (to lobby for their children) but we tell them this is our own discipline here; if you cannot abide by it, then you are free to go elsewhere. My pride is that the school has never produced any failure in whatever examination we partake in.

What is your advice to the government on how to attract best brains to the teaching profession?

It’s a long journey, but we need to first of all go back to the rudiments; we have to go back to the basis. We have gone off the track, education-wise. If you want to grow a nation, you start from the education path. It’s unfortunate that 90 per cent of all our good quality professionals are outside because that is where they can get job security. The brain drain issue can be addressed if we go back to re-chart our course. Give the correct infrastructure; give the correct template for people to develop on.

Can you tell us about your family?

I have four children who are doing well in their chosen fields. I have an architect, a real estate manager, an economist and an educationist. All of them passed through this school.