By Dayo Adesulu

It isdishearting that the way the average Nigerian evaluates the education sector is quite different from the perception of many foreigners. Mr Derek Smith, a Briton and an expatriate in Olashore School, Iloko-Ijesa, Osun State, who had taught in the United Kingdom and other parts of the world, has stated that a significant number of schools in the UK are worse than those in Nigeria in terms of academic performance, behaviour and facilities.

“The truth is this, I have taught in the UK and I can tell you, a significant number of schools in the UK are worse than schools here in Nigeria in terms of performance, behaviour and facilities.”

Speaking with selected journalists during a facility tour at Olashore International School, Smith said: “This concept that everything is perfect somewhere, everything is not perfect anywhere. If you look at the schools in Nigeria, take a look at their results, they are comparable with average schools in the UK.”According to him, just as everything is not rosy in Nigeria, certainly everything is not rosy too in the UK.

Mr Smith who is the Principal and Chief Executive Officer of Olashore International School noted that there are good schools in Nigeria just as in the UK.

“I was with the Head of Cambridge International Exams recently for Sub Sahara Africa and we were discussing some of the issues in the UK education system.  One of the significant issues in UK is government interference in education,” he added.

He posited: “I am not saying we should not look at the UK to see what can be done well, but my view is that you look at places where things are being done well and you integrate them. I would not suggest copying the UK model of education for the whole country is the solution because there are a lot of problems with the UK education system. Every child can be good; it does not matter where you come from. Either from Africa or China or anywhere, it does not matter.”

He explained that there have been improvements but there are also many things to be improved on. He maintained that In any country that is expanding its education like Nigeria, private institutions must be supported and should be seen as factors for expansion.

Smith who described the effort of any government which assist private institutions, as gesture in right direction, noted that is what is happening everywhere, the world over. According to him, even in the United States, the government has to link with private institutions to boost the education sector.

His words: “The history of the development of education anywhere in the world will be incomplete without talking about the private sector. Private sector is a key part of a well structured education system in a country. I don’t think you will find any country in the world except the communists that do not have private schools.  They are there as a model, they set a standard and they also provide opportunity.

I believe in private enterprise, if you don’t have private enterprise, I don’t believe your country is going to grow.”

Speaking in the same vein, the Chairman, Board of Governors, Olashore International School, Abimbola Olashore said that as a country, we have not actually defined what we want our educational sector to look like. He said over the years Nigeria as a country keeps experimenting.

He asked: “Are we sure the education we are giving to students can make them graduates that can cope with the Nigeria that is to come? The world is changing rapidly; are we sure our education sector can deliver?”

Academic standard

He said, since Olashore School has proven over two decades to have maintained academic standard, it will proceed on the leadership training which according to him is lacking in the country. The Chairman who said he feels there is a leadership deficit in this country added that schools must take it up as a specific area to develop.

His words: “One thing we did is that we introduced tests for our teachers. We want to know how familiar you are with IT development. When we get new teachers, we ask them, are you sure you are going to be able to keep up with the new skills and fresh developments?

We want to introduce our teachers to the latest technology. We will start from the top down, from the teachers and then to the students. There are some basic things in this school that we follow. We believe in our rules and we do not bend them. We want to look for people that can cope, and we have being lucky.’’