By EBELE ORAKPO

Mr. Otobong Ebe is the Administrator of Kaduna-based Anchor Schools. In this chat with Vanguard, the graduate of Accountancy from the University of Abuja, speaks on how he got into education business, the challenges and his vision for the school.

Excerpts:

Upon graduation from the University of Abuja, Mr. Otobong Ebe who was born in Kano, raised in Kaduna and has lived all his life in the north, worked for a non-governmental organisation (NGO) for a few years before going to the UK for a master’s degree in Marketing and Advertising.

Going into education business:

Despite having a degree in accountancy, Oto, as he is fondly called by friends and family, decided to go into education business because according to him, he loves working and spending time with children. Moreover, he found accounting boring. “I did not know how boring accounting was until I got into it.

I realised the boredom in my first year post-graduation. It is monotonous. I actually have three major passions – tourism, education and sports,” but he chose education above others because “on coming back to Nigeria, I had not intended to go into education immediately but there was a need. The school was already in existence but the management was not so good and there were many opportunities that needed to be explored which needed my expertise. So I just jumped into it,” said Oto.

*Oto Ebe…Certain government legislations do not encourage one to put in his or her best into running a school.

The school:

He said; “I came back and went fully into the school business without bothering to look for another job because one, I love working and spending time with children and it was just something I knew I needed to do, get it right and that is what we are working on.

Over the last couple of years, it has really grown and we are starting the secondary section in September. We are also trying to move over from the regular Nigerian curriculum to infuse a bit of the British curriculum as well because right now, we do not have any British secondary school in Kaduna. I noticed that parents of most of our graduating pupils want to send them off to boarding schools in Abuja and Lagos so that they can have that British education so I am trying to start it in Kaduna,” he said.

“My mother has been a career teacher so myself and my sister persuaded her to quit working for someone else and start hers after we all left the house. She started a daycare in the house, then  pre-school, and it grew and grew to the point where it is now. She is still the proprietress though she has taken a back seat now. So I run everything administration and oversee academics as well but she comes in from time to time to touch on things academic.”

The school which will be 10 years old in September, has as its vision ‘to nurture a complete child in the transition to adulthood in readiness for 21st Century challenges and instilling the core values of diligence and excellence.’

Challenges:

On the challenges faced in the business, Oto said they are numerous. “For one, certain government legislations that do not encourage one to put in his or her best into running a school. For example, in Kaduna State, we are all required to belong to certain categories.

Schools are categorised and then the higher they rank your school, the more money you have to pay. Schools have to pay as much as N250,000 a year to  government, besides your regular pay as you earn tax and the income tax paid by the owner of the school.

That has been a problem. But it is a work in progress because we are engaging the government to try and see our point of view and bring this down. “They want all the schools to step up standards but where I fault them is that they are not carrying out oversight functions to enforce certain standards amongst schools so you have all these schools, I don’t know if I should call them mushroom, there are lots of schools with no standards springing up everywhere and you see the half-baked teachers and pupils that graduate and it is really sad. So I think paying this money is not such a problem if they will exercise their oversight function and enforce the standards across board.”

In the next five years:

“Anchor in the next five years should have a standard secondary school, and in seven years, I intend to start an A-level programme as well and God willing, in 10 years, we should look at establishing a university or even a monotechnic,” he enthused.