By Dayo Adesulu

Dr Sunny Attah

The proprietor,Mandate Private Schools, Akesan, Lagos, Dr Sunny Attah has said that no nation can develop in spites of its natural endowment if such nation does not take seriously human capital development which could be derived through sound academic foundation that is tailored towards a good cradle of nursery, primary and secondary school. He reiterated that as a nation, our major focus should be is in the education industry because it is the education sector that produces the human capital that is needed to develop other industries of the whole nation. Before a nation could be referred to as developed, Attah noted that she must have developed people that can think for the country. Addressing journalists in a press conference held recently at the school, Dr Attah said that if we want to witness growth in the nation’s economy, concentration should be placed on our nursery primary and secondary schools because this is where the matter is. If the foundation is destroy, what can the righteous do, saying that no matter the oil boom and other natural resources in our country, we need human beings to manage it. And any human being who does not have a sound educational background cannot manage the resources of a nation.

According to Attah, school business is not necessary for profit making, if the right thing is done, you will be able to make profit from it. It is not an investment that you will say you want to make profit from as soon as you start. If you meet the customers’ expectations, definitely, profit will come and you will be able to expand the business. He lamented a situation where some school proprietors establish schools in a “face me I face you” house and before long, government has given them approval. “A school that the population is not up to twenty-five is registering student for WAEC,” he said.

Speaking on the advantages of Boarding school over day school, Attah said that here in Lagos parents go out early in the morning to arrive home late at night without any available time to check the academic performance of their children. Boarding school will take care of the lapses. For example, in Mandate, we have the Boarding house of one hundred and twenty students capacity. We have a house master, house mistress and hostel mother. Hostel mother, he explained, stays with the students and have access to both the girls and boys hostel. When any of the students is hospitalize the hostel mother is there with him, performing the functions of a biological mother. Therefore, the students don’t feel the absent of their parents because the hostel mother takes charge. This enable them to wake up early, prepare, read their books and go for lectures. The issue of leaving home early, rush to school is not there again.

We teach entrepreneurship development- teach them how to save money, bake, cook variety of food, plant crops and wash clothe.. They produce beads and other netting works. We teach them life issue as not all that glitters is gold. In Mandate schools, we don’t allow a child to keep money. All their pocket monies are kept in the account department. If you are over spending, we alert the parent to bring him to other. We are indirectly teaching them how to manage money. Some of the parents who argue that the school should not control their children spending; we told them that Mandate School was not meant for such child. If your child began to learn how to spend all, if he starts work, he will not have savings. We don’t wait until they get into the national assembly before they are thought of moral. We teach value for humanity.

On the issue of examination malpractice, Attah noted that Mandate School has zero tolerance noting that right from the nursery to the primary and secondary school, he has started inculcating academic discipline into the students. Before we admit any student, he said, Mandate Private Schools will always enquire to know the school he/she is coming from, whether it was an approved or if they accept external candidate. Attah who heaped the causes of examination malpractice at the door step of external candidate, reiterated that there is no way a school will accept external candidate that it will be free from examination malpractice. The CEO pointed out that though, Mandate Schools accept transfer admission into SS1, SS2 and SS3, however, such students must have joined the school for at least one academic session as the teachers are doing every thing possible to make sure the students pass their exams without assisting them to malpractice.