All Southwest states should follow Oyo’s Governor Ajimọbi & return primary & secondary schools to former owners – Tola Adenle

While it is understandable that there must be people who would not like the idea of Oyo State’s Governor Ajimobi returning all schools in the state to their former (mostly mission) owners, it is my opinion that it is the right thing to do once the interest of the kids is central to planning and policy-making.

1.  It was wrong for government at “federal” and state levels, starting from Obasanjo days for government to take over what individuals, states and mission churches started with private funds: universities like Ile-Ife, now OAU, for example and the Liberty Stadium both founded and built by the Western Region government.
2. After the MISappropriation of such private institutions at “federal” and state levels, I am unaware of where or when compensations were paid.
3. Governments at state levels have had problems of meeting their financial obligations to the extent that paying salaries of workers in secondary and primary schools have become impossible in the last year or more. In fact, I attended a party at Ibadan for a retired teacher who turned sixty, and nothing seemed to have been  party chat more than back-logged teachers’ salaries as many of the attendees were teachers.

When missions and private people ran schools in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, students had teachers who were more dedicated than what obtains now, a situation that cannot be separated from the financial situations that states have found themselves as student populations grow and the need for infrastructure development accelerated.

I cannot claim to know the reason(s) for teachers and pupils/students’ revolt at this return-to-owners’ new policy but I believe that whatever they may be, would be a matter that would be resolve-able in the short run and looking at the long run, a return to the former owners is not only just but would benefit teachers and students alike.

The governors’ motives which are not stated in news reports as well as opponents’ preference to remain government-owned institutions need be put before a selected group by the Oyo State government which should include parents where reconciliation would be tabled. Monies and other obligations owed to teachers, the owners to whom schools are being returned and creditors should be worked out as to timeline of payments and settlement of the obligations.

Parents’ participation will be important because a situation that has parents not wanting to be involved financially in any expenditure concerning the education of their kids would constitute big set-backs for education in the state. After all, parents did pay tuition in primary schools up to 1954 and even now in parts of Yorubaland, parents willingly pay levies and other expenses for their kids. Anything of value has a price and our appreciation of things seem to be higher when we pay something in return for any them.

A few years back, two schools in my native Iju in Ondo State had two elementary schools devastated by a rain storm that led to the schools’ roofs being blown off. For over a year, the schools were not given a look-see, a situation that had nothing to do with non-reporting of the situation by the locals. An older retired sibling took the matter up all the way to the Governor’s office, and if truth be told, the governor swung into action. Despite contractors being employed for the Methodist and R.C.M. Schools – the two affected schools – nothing much was done. It was then I got to know about the situation and my brother turned over documents about the school. I was able to see the governor and the Permanent Secretary. Today, the RCM School has been renovated and added to as a Model Primary School for Iju while the Methodist School has been roofed and renovated.

Here is the reason for above example: During the long period that those two schools were not repaired by government, MOST of the pupils were transferred by their parents – farmers and other rural dwellers – to private schools, an unusual situation that had the  town’s government schools having less number of pupils than private schools!  The statistics had been compiled by my brother and school authorities at Iju and passed the stats to Ondo’s Governor Mimiko through the State’s Ministry of Education.

This is the first time I am narrating the story of a situation I got peripherally involved in only because of its relevance to the story at hand.

Now, two final points.

Sometimes despite government’s willingness to do something, this was not done in the above case as the contractor paid to do a job took the money but did not perform until a public-spirited person in the community took up the matter. And somewhere along the chain of command, somebody or some people did not do their job by supervising that contractor, and hundreds of kids in two schools got short-changed.

And despite the fact that two schools became abandoned which led to kids’ interests not being served, parents did not fold their arms but all scraped and scrounged and removed their kids to avoid catastrophe.

Our people must wake up to their responsibility of taking interest in the life and education of their kids because – let’s face it – government as presently run in Nigeria, and CONSIDERING THE RUNAWAY POPULATION EXPLOSION, cannot be expected to handle the education of kids and do it all at no cost for the hundreds of thousands of kids in most Yoruba states.

I am no policy wonk but I feel this new direction in education at the lowest levels may take some time before the positive results start showing but will see great improvement in education as we all have yearned for over many years.

It may even be more cost effective if accurate census of all pupils are taken so that per/head specific amounts are paid for each child to each Mission as the state’s contribution, which cannot and should not end with the return of schools. The remaining public schools in each state should benefit greatly from much-reduced school populations which would become easier to handle financially and logistically for each state government.

SUNDAY, JUNE 12, 2016. 4:30 a.m. [GMT]