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Nigeria: The Return of Mission Schools
- Posted by: Staff Writer just now in Education 0 Comments
- The Return of Mission Schools
- It is easy for casual observers to assume from the return of about 40 schools to their original missionary owners by the Delta state government that this is a precedent to be desperately followed and speedily replicated by other states.
  
  We make bold to say that it is not. In the case under reference the state government simply handed the keys of these schools to their original owners, washed its hands of any responsibility and then asked the teachers in the affected schools to either seek transfer to public schools or stay with their new employers. No guidelines were given and it is not clear what modalities were put in place to define the new relationship with the state government.
  
  There were also no templates for redeployment of teachers or relocation, as the case may be. What was very discernible in the decision is that in the bid to cut cost, the Delta state government has decided to pass the responsibility of running these (former mission) schools to their original owners without putting into consideration several factors. It is also clear that no due diligence has been done to ascertain whether these old but new owners have the capacity to run the schools being returned. We deplore this cynical approach in a sector as important as education and on an issue critical to the future of our children.
  
  We believe that the Delta state authorities need to go back to the drawing board to ascertain the level of preparedness of these owners to take back the schools and the teachers. Even though it may amount to putting the cart before the horse now, it is still necessary so that if there are corrective measures to be taken, they can still intervene before it is too late. The positive thing about the gesture, however, is that it will hopefully stem the conspicuous decline of academic standards in another 40 of the hundreds of schools taken over by state and Federal Governments over the years. Before the recent development in Delta, other states had adopted a policy of returning many schools to their original owners.
  
  Lagos state did that successfully after a process that was both thorough and painstaking. Ogun state ended up with complications, because Mrs Sheila Solarin has been battling the government to return Mayflower to her without success. It is still not clear why this is so and repeated interventions by respected individuals and organisations have not made any difference. We ask the governor of Ogun state, Mr Ibikunle Amosun to look into the matter and intervene on the side of justice and commonsense. We believe that it is wrong for government to confiscate schools that are duly established by independent sweat, especially when the schools maintain the requisite academic standards and do not teach, or preach, ideas and ideals that are antithetical to the Nigerian State and the basic principles of the Nigerian Constitution.
  
  We acknowledge that it is within the context of concerns about national cohesion that the summary usurpation of proprietary rights over private schools by government was thought expedient. We note, however, that whatever goodwill expected to have come from this was obviated by 1) failure to compensate the original owners of the schools, or treat them with respect during the take-over process; 2) collapse of values of discipline and staff integrity after the take-over; and 3) precipitous decline of academic standards in those schools. It should be noted that an effective inspectorate department, not school take over, enables a serious government maintain standards and ensure that school proprietors do not take undue liberties with the curriculum; or with the grooming of the youth population.
  
  While we understand the motive behind the recent action of the Delta state government without endorsing the bad example of not defining clear rules of engagement for the now-confounded teachers, we call for the return of schools to their original owners and the simultaneous strengthening of the monitoring and evaluation capabilities of education managers and administrators at all levels of government.
Tags:Delta State, Ogun State.
Source:Leadership