The education reform was necessitated by the dilapidation of facilities, non-availability of critical equipment and monumental mismanagement of scarce resources in the nation’s Federal Government Colleges. The mismanagement has transcended the ordinary corruption known in Nigerian parlance that it requires a clinical surgeon to once again put the schools back on track. Hence, the godly mission of the former Minister of education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, whose singular vision was to produce internationally competitive products relevant to the needs of a 21^st century economy. The reform, which should have been celebrated and consummated by now, is being trailed with a lot of criticisms borne out of sheer ignorance of the policy like that expressed by the PDP Chairman or the mischief of those whose vested pecuniary interests are threatened like the Senior Civil Servant Association. The calculation of these scavengers is to force the FG rescinds its decision to partner with private organizations in the management of the schools. 

The ability of the student was not in doubt. So also was the teacher. However, the enabling environment was not there to make students to realize even their normal potentials not to talk of a robust system that pushes them to edges beyond their natural abilities. According to the Ministry’s statistics between 2000 and 2004, only seven schools out of the 65 reporting Unity Schools recorded 50 percent and above in the West Africa School Certificate examinations and less than 15 percent of Unity Schools’ students passed up to five credits and above including English and Mathematics. In fact, in a Unity school in the far North, less than 2% passed WASC examinations in the contemplation of the National Policy.

The teachers are equally in bad shape - the system does not encourage them to bring about their best. The school has been unwittingly turned into a prison yard where even the most basic amenity of human existence, water, is a luxury. The teacher who is supposed to be abreast with national and international affairs and modern education developments is cut out from the media world and left alone with tales of lamentations, frustrations and regret that he read a single honours degree that could only fetch him a teaching job in a ‘dry-land’ secondary school.

It was against these stark realities that the Senior Civil Servants Association, an Association that is supposed to be the agent of positive change, has come out to condemn the laudable effort of the former Minister of Education to revamp this critical sector so that Nigerian children could have better education in a more conducive environment and be competitive in the 21^st century world. Where was this Association when, in spite of the average N150 million being paid out to each school every year, the schools were callously and ungodly turned into slums? Where were they when principals threw caution to the winds by employing all sorts of people as non teaching staff to the extent that in one school they account for about 250 when teaching staff including the principal were not more than 40? Where were they when students go back to schools from holidays with loads of stores as if they are opening a mini supermarket?

These civil servants and their cohorts who have been eating fat on the system have been trying to paint the reform in a negative light by telling Nigerians that the reform is about privatization and commercialization of the schools whose effect is to prize secondary education out of the reach of ordinary Nigerians. When government countered the propaganda, the mischief makers became content to posit that the reform was self serving. How, they did not say.

What everybody knows however is that Students’ academic performance in the past five years had been poor. The capacity and ability of teachers to teach their assigned subjects has been compromised by lack of training and absence of basic amenities. Teachers’ adherence to the school curriculum, scheme of work, lesson plan and other schedules set for teachers is not effective due to the neglect by Principals of their primary teaching responsibilities in favour of the more lucrative administrative functions. Due to the distant bureaucracy between the FME and the school management, the process of decision making is not efficient and schools’ targets are never realistic. For example, Student/ teacher ratio and the student class population, which does not allow sufficient room for supervision, has not been reviewed in a long time. Similarly, the Non availability and inadequacy of instructional materials is legendary.

From my understanding, the philosophy behind the reform was simply to allow for a more effective management of the schools, mobilize additional funds from communities and philanthropists, and create a robust system that enables students to acquire functional education as against the extant scenario where only the ‘Certificate’ that is being chased. According to the Federal Ministry of education, “the PPP initiative will ensure the effectiveness of Unity Schools by bringing together various stakeholders in the Education system to deliver innovative solutions to the problems of poor school management, academic under-achievement and poor utilisation of public financial resources.” The Ministry further emphasized that “the PPP Initiative is not a sale of Unity Schools. Rather, it will foster strong governance, based on partnership between the Federal Government as the main financier of these schools and non-government organisations.”

The PPP project was therefore based on the following premise 

• The project is a partnership between the FG and the Private Partners whereby the Private Partner would operate and manage the schools on behalf of the FG for a period of 10 years.
• The schools’ ownership will therefore continue to be in the Federal Government and the Private Partners would not by any act or omission exercise any incident of ownership on the schools property.
• The Private Partners are to be non-profit making organizations
• The primary funding to the tune of 70% of the school expenditure is to be borne by the FG while 30% is to be mobilized by the Private partner.
• The Private Partners cannot increase school fees as the FG believes that its budgetary expenditure for these schools is sufficient to take care of the schools.

Conversely, the Private Partner is expected to

• Recreate the school and provide an enabling environment where quality learning could take place
• Re-train, reorient and motivate teachers to provide quality teaching
• Tamper with the implementation of the curriculum to make education more functional as against the present scenario where it is the certificate that is being chased.
• Reorient the attitude of students, particularly the girl child in educationally backward states, to encourage them for University education
• Supplement primary funding by an aggressive involvement of all stakeholders in the adequate funding of education

The reform hopes to achieve both a revamping of the schools’ infrastructure and a revolutionary introduction of teaching methods, subjects and/ or other extra-curricula activities that would develop students in spirit, mind and body. In Developing Students’ Spirits, students are expected to grow in confidence of themselves as educated learners, initiate new learning experience to satisfy their need to know, understand that risk-taking and requesting for help are part of the learning process and increase their feeling of compassion for themselves, others at school and the broader community.

 To develop the student’s mind, the Private Partner is expected to put in place a system that would make students excel in oral communication, reading, writing, mathematics and problem solving, develop communication skills in a third language, become complex thinkers and problem solvers, and instil in them patriotism, morality, tolerance and national unity.  In the same vein, the system should be able to make students become as physically fit as possible and teach students how to take care of their bodies through exercise, nutritious eating habits and healthy practice. That is the essence of Developing Students’ Body.

From the selection process, it is beyond doubt that the Private Partners are competent drivers. All the successful School Management Organizations are non-profit, non-religious and non-governmental organizations committed to the improvement of education in Nigeria. They have tremendous experience, both as groups and as individuals, in education and education management. They have the capacity and capability to attract non-governmental investment as well as interface with relevant Stakeholders for the general improvement of education sector. The only thing we can do is to encourage these organizations so that collectively we can salvage education in the Unity Schools. Anything less is a disservice to our fatherland.

Farum is the Chief Operating Officer, Abdullahi Fodio Education Foundation, Birnin Kebbi