Last month, a friend of mine, Chidi, told me that he had resigned his appointment as a teacher in a private secondary school in Jos in order to look for greener pasture. Before his resignation, Chidi was the HOD of Languages Department of the secondary school. He taught English language at the senior secondary section and French language at the junior secondary section, in addition, he was a form master and he performed other ad hoc duties too. Chidi usually starts work at 7am and finishes at 5pm. For his reward, he was given the meager sum of 15,000 Naira Monthly, I mean fifteen thousand Naira. 5,000 Naira was usually added as ‘extra lesson fee’ that is for the extra hours he puts from 2-5pm. The extra lesson bonus does not apply to months in which the students are on holidays. Now before you drop your eyebrows, let me add that Chidi is a graduate of Linguistics with a Second Class Honours, Upper Division, yet he falls among the countless graduates that are incommensurately rewarded, if not exploited, for their labour. Oh! I almost forgot to mention that late-coming of a teacher in Chidi’s former school attracts a fine 500 Naira and a day’s absence attracts 1,000 Naira to be deducted from the teacher’s salary. Now the same school makes a net profit of 4 million Naira each term yet one of its most senior staff receives a paltry 15,000 Naira for his salary – I can’t even imagine the take home pay of the others – even if the proprietor pays 50,000 Naira to every staff, he may still afford to go home with atleast 1 million Naira termly which, in my opinion, is more than enough profit since the aim of setting up the school is not to make profit but impart knowledge to the younger generation.

Now Chidi’s former school is just one private school in Plateau out of the private schools that greatly outnumber Government Secondary Schools in the State, representing just but a star in milky way constellation of private secondary schools scattered across the country, not to mention private primary and nursery schools springing up like churches, almost on a daily basis, and ofcourse private tertiary institutions. The good news is that all these schools provide employment to many idle youths roaming the streets with their certificates – atleast half bread is better than none- but the bad news is that most of these teachers engaged in the private schools are grossly overused; they are cumbrously tasked and poorly paid. In a country that has mandated every institution to pay 18,000 as minimum wage, some graduates working in private schools still receive less than the stipulated amount, while prices of goods and services are soaring higher as oga at the top has vowed to completely remove fuel subsidy. And this has prompted me to ask; what is the plight of the teacher? Can he ever utilize his lean means to pay his house rent, feed himself, pay his utility bills, marry, sponsor his children’s or sibling’s education, clothe himself properly and leave some change for contingencies? Can he even dream of buying a car or building a house of his own? No wonder you often hear graduates working in private secondary or primary schools saying, ” we dey manage for………before we get job” or ” I am still an applicant” (while working in a school). It means they don’t value their jobs owing primarily to how they are paid and treated.

Last month, a friend of mine, Chidi, told me that he had resigned his appointment as a teacher in a private secondary school in Jos in order to look for greener pasture. Before his resignation, Chidi was the HOD of Languages Department of the secondary school. He taught English language at the senior secondary section and French language at the junior secondary section, in addition, he was a form master and he performed other ad hoc duties too. Chidi usually starts work at 7am and finishes at 5pm. For his reward, he was given the meager sum of 15,000 Naira Monthly, I mean fifteen thousand Naira. 5,000 Naira was usually added as ‘extra lesson fee’ that is for the extra hours he puts from 2-5pm. The extra lesson bonus does not apply to months in which the students are on holidays. Now before you drop your eyebrows, let me add that Chidi is a graduate of Linguistics with a Second Class Honours, Upper Division, yet he falls among the countless graduates that are incommensurately rewarded, if not exploited, for their labour. Oh! I almost forgot to mention that late-coming of a teacher in Chidi’s former school attracts a fine 500 Naira and a day’s absence attracts 1,000 Naira to be deducted from the teacher’s salary. Now the same school makes a net profit of 4 million Naira each term yet one of its most senior staff receives a paltry 15,000 Naira for his salary – I can’t even imagine the take home pay of the others – even if the proprietor pays 50,000 Naira to every staff, he may still afford to go home with atleast 1 million Naira termly which, in my opinion, is more than enough profit since the aim of setting up the school is not to make profit but impart knowledge to the younger generation.

Now Chidi’s former school is just one private school in Plateau out of the private schools that greatly outnumber Government Secondary Schools in the State, representing just but a star in milky way constellation of private secondary schools scattered across the country, not to mention private primary and nursery schools springing up like churches, almost on a daily basis, and ofcourse private tertiary institutions. The good news is that all these schools provide employment to many idle youths roaming the streets with their certificates – atleast half bread is better than none- but the bad news is that most of these teachers engaged in the private schools are grossly overused; they are cumbrously tasked and poorly paid. In a country that has mandated every institution to pay 18,000 as minimum wage, some graduates working in private schools still receive less than the stipulated amount, while prices of goods and services are soaring higher as oga at the top has vowed to completely remove fuel subsidy. And this has prompted me to ask; what is the plight of the teacher? Can he ever utilize his lean means to pay his house rent, feed himself, pay his utility bills, marry, sponsor his children’s or sibling’s education, clothe himself properly and leave some change for contingencies? Can he even dream of buying a car or building a house of his own? No wonder you often hear graduates working in private secondary or primary schools saying, ” we dey manage for………before we get job” or ” I am still an applicant” (while working in a school). It means they don’t value their jobs owing primarily to how they are paid and treated.

Sometimes I wonder how these private schools are given approval and license to operate knowing well that they lack adequate structures and facilities. I am not speaking from the blues because I once taught in a private secondary school, a few years back, for three months before I answered the mandatory call to serve my country, and if you ask me, I still feel like taking that school to court each time I remember how I was being overworked for the pitiable sum of 8,000 Naira per month. This ugly scenario boils down to the corruption of the government. Let’s face it! Ministries of Education (States and Federal) are not executing their functions properly. For example, when was the last time you heard a private secondary school being closed down because it did not meet up with specified standards of operation in the State or country? Why are all new private schools hastily being approved? When was the last time a State or Federal Government secondary was established, not enlarged or renovated, in your State?
Proprietors are taking advantage of government’s failure to establish and run her schools properly, and also the incessant strikes, to establish their private schools. Proper education in Nigeria is now, unfortunately, a luxury. This is at par with goal #5c of the National Policy on Education (2004), which stipulates, “The provision of equal access to educational opportunities for all citizens of the country at the Primary, Secondary and Tertiary levels both inside and outside the formal school system”. Looking at Nigeria now, can we safely assert that we are abiding by the policy? If Ministries too have failed, it is because the government of the day is not giving them proper attention. For instance, which of the States has allocated the minimum UN specified 26% of her annual budget to Education?

Private schools have been able to provide a partial panacea for secondary and primary education but at throat-cutting costs, and you still wonder why many people loot from their offices to pay their children’s fees? Government primary and secondary schools may barely measure up to half of the private schools. Every wealthy person wants to open a school, because to them ‘it is good business’, while parents scrape their savings to pay fees for their children and teachers are being underpaid. Our children at the receiving end are being taught anything or nothing at all but are negatively aided at the eleventh hour to pass National Examinations.

More disturbing is the case of State Government Secondary Schools where they sometimes have adequate number of staffs that are not being overworked and yet the output of the students’ performance is very depressing. This translates to the fact that government and ministries have failed to put strategies in place for proper evaluation of the productivity of the schools, hence the thriving of private schools which seem to be a little better in terms of performance. The main implication of this ‘school business’ is that it creates a bleak future for our children and even for the nation.

by Bizum Yadok

Bizum writes for ViewPointNigeria from Jos – He can be reached at the address below:

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @bizuumyadok

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The costs of education in Plateau state/Nigeria by Bizum Yadok