By Abimbola Joseph
CITIZENS COMPASS –Asipa Kaoli Olusanya, Proprietor of Kith and Kin Educational School on Thursday, sought government intervention on private schools management in the country.
He disclosed this in an interview with Citizen Compass in Ikorodu area of Lagos state.
The proprietor said that involvement of the private sector in covering the gap of eligible student enrollment for education and solving the Out-of-School Children’s menace in the country can not be over emphasised.
According to him, the cost of running schools today has become a burden as many were struggling to survive and the implication may be an imminent danger to the economy.
” Public schools do not have the capacity to absorb all eligible school children today in Nigeria.
“Go to every community in Lagos state, you will see that the number of private schools you have is in multiples of the public schools you have in that same community.
“Typically, there are two primary schools and one secondary school with a population of roughly about 1500, technically, it can not be enough.
“There are more than 2,000 private schools that are around here and that is just a microcosm of what was found everywhere in Lagos State.
“Private schools are playing an important role in filling a gap which is a very important role in the education sector that the government cannot ignore.
“So if we find ourselves in a very dire economic situation, it means we needed intervention, education needs providers
Government also have to think about them, listen to them, and see how they can assist them to provide a better and more effective education, ” he said
However, the government has made tremendous intervention in different sectors of the economy, giving them some subsidy or making some interventions for them to survive inspite the downturn.
“Government’s intervention in manufacturing, giving them some subsidy, they do that for the hospitality industry, and entertainment industry.
“But for the private education industry, I have never thought about it at all, as if education is not important to the development of the nation,” he said.
