The National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), has called for huge investment in education as the country celebrates her 62 years independence anniversary.
The NAPPS Chairperson, Gwagwalada Area Council, Mr Samuel Ajerinwale said this in Abuja in an event to commemorate the 62nd independence anniversary of the country.
Ajerinwale said there should massive investment in education which would bring about research and innovations with up-to-date knowledge that would make Nigerian students to compete favourably with any of their counterpart in the world.
He said this would make Nigerians naturally get their knowledge at home as it would discouraged them to pursue foreign education rather than our doctors, lecturers traveling abroad to invest in other nations..
” As a nation, we have a lot of things to do. If there is love, you love your neighbour, you love those within and outside your state, love everyone around you, without love there won’t be progress.
” As private school owners, we are really trying our best to bring back all the lost glory of education, we are bringing it back and we are still working seriously within ourselves.
” And we are still working assiduously with government nowadays to make sure that things are done normally.
” Nigeria is a better place, we are the richest In terms of natural resources, human resources, we are very rich but unfortunately they are not really doing what’s suppose to.
” If we can just try and put more investment into education things will turn around for this country and instead of our children going to other countries, it will be a reverse as they will be coming from other countries to our country to learn,” he said.
Ajerinwale called on the government to priotise education especially as it relates to budget and policies so as to have back the lost glory in the sector.
He urged the government to revisit the demand of university ‘s lecturers who had been on strike for over eight months so that students could return to the classroom.
Also, Dr Olubokola Dosunmu, Director, Toddlers Haven and Everest Heights Intl’ Academy, Gwagwalada and member, NAPPS FCT Board of Trustees (BOT), said that in spite of the challenges facing the education sector, there had been a lot of positive growth, especially with the involvement of private schools.
Dosunmu said that the sector had evolved over time but that the impact and the support of government in the past 62 years had not been commensurate with the effort of the stakeholders.
According to her, when you look at all the factors that drive a nation, you have basic education, you have basic health care, you have basic infrastructure, so we cannot continue to ignore education.
” In as much as there are so many challenges that we are facing as a nation because we may tend to want to delve on the negative, the honest truth is Nigeria education system has actually evolved.
” This is in so many ways positively and with growth especially with the effort and the support of the private sector in the educational system.
” We have evolved in so many ways that now adopt a lot of best global practices and it has also created an interface for ease of Nigerians to migrate abroad for study abroad when will know that we have the standard that we try to drive.
” Of course, when we look at the education in Nigeria for the basic education from the secondary to the tertiary level, certainly there are challenges. But the honest truth is we have tried .
” The private sector has tried, even, the public has tried. The lecturers, the leaders of the institutions have tried but then, when we look at the impact and the input of government in the past 62 years, that has been dwindling.
” The impact and the support of government in the past 62 years has not been going commensurate with the effort of the stakeholders in terms of the educators, the lecturers, the facilitators of education, the private and the public sector,” she said.
In the same vein, Mrs Esther Tah , the proprietress of Capstone Model Academy and Vice Chairman, NAPPS Gwagwalada Area Council, Finance, said all hands must be on deck to enhance the country’s education sector.
Tah said that Nigeria education system in the next five years should move to an appreciable level compare to what was available outside with the contributions of stakeholders.
” The parents, school owners, the governments, every stakeholders in education has to play their role effectively.
“For example, for us the school owners, we need to use the approaches that are available and that can be abreast with what is obtainable in the advance countries.
”That’s why we are emphasising on advocating and recommending ICT for every school. School owners have to ensure that we train this children, we imbibe integrity, honesty, hardwork in the lives of our children.
”So that we’ll do away with issue of examination malpractice. All these children needs now is encouragement, guidance so they can do a lot of things on their own using ICT,” she said.
She also said that a right environment must be put in place to ensure that schools are in session as private schools alone cannot drive the system.
She called for a re-orientation and a complete mind-shift in the sector, saying that education is the back bone of any other sector.
