By Dayo Adesulu

African children need   a platform to place them on the same level with their counterparts abroad. This was the position of Greensprings School’s Director Mrs Lai Koiki at the eve of the school’s 40th anniversary held in the school boardroom.She stated that if the Nigerian education sector must compete globally, things need to be put right; “Nothing good and lasting comes easy, it takes focus and passion”.

Feeding questions from journalists before the anniversary, she said the education sector needs to be revamped to get the best from schools. She advised that those vested with the responsibility of inspecting schools for approval must look to the 21st century equipment that are useful to students.

She expressed displeasure at situations where representatives of government agencies who approve schools ask for school typewriters as one of the requirements when the school already has computers. “There is a problem if the regulators of schools do not know what they are doing. “The inability of our educational administrators to regulate and supervise schools effectively is another problem. Ten percent of pupils in Nigeria are in private schools, while 90 percent are in public schools and they are not getting the education.”

Koiki who charged school owners and government to go for expatriates to manage schools said there is a lot we can learn from them. “Though we have a lot of gifted people in Nigeria, there are a lot of talents that need nurturing among them. Training and retraining of teachers will bring out the best for students. Some of the trainings for teachers could be done in-house through knowledgeable expatriates.”

Mrs Koiki who has been appointed Board Member of Accreditation International , an organization that accredits schools world over.

She said, “If our teachers are well trained, we may not have need to go outside the country to look for teachers. Fundamentally, the Colleges of Education have to improve their training on the would be teachers who will bring about change. The way they are being taught has to change. We have to learn new things. Those that are training these teachers must know the needs of the children of the future. We can learn from educational systems around and effect changes where necessary.”

The Director who sited Singapore as an example of how public schools should look like said; “There, public schools are just like private schools and their students do so well. There is really private schools there as there is no need for parents to patronise private schools.” On the need to allow dynamism in educating students, Koiki maintained that the educational system has to change.

She explained: “If you have a six-year-old child and you give him a phone, and he knows what to do with the phone, the way such child should be educated should be different. We need to ensure that the teachers placed over these students are able to teach in a way that will bring out the best in them. When you teach, you must be able to ask questions that will bring out some things inside of them, but when teachers cannot do that, there is a problem.”