By Dayo Adesulu

BOTHERED by the existing educational gap between private and public schools, authorities of the Association of International School Educators of Nigeria, AISEN, has brought key stakeholders in the sector together to chart the way forward.

Speaking to Vanguard, the director of AISEN, Mrs Biola Lamikola, said AISEN is  bringing stakeholders together because; “We realised that not every school has the privilege we have to give the quality of education we give, hence we want to deliberate with stakeholders to see how we can bridge the gap.

“To achieve this goal, we hope to work with the community to adopt a school. We also hope to take it higher to the state level to see how we can contribute to the education.

“Enhancing quality assurance in the system is one of the reasons we invited Lagos State officials to the programme. However in the next two years, we hope to see more cooperation, more communication between the divides and see where we can offer help to one another.”

FORUM: From left: Mr. Olusegun Falemu, Pastor Adetolu Olatunde, Mrs. Omotunde Lawson, Mr. Ronald Cilliers (AISEN), Mrs. Ronke Soyombo, Mr. Nicholas Barrett (AISEN), Mrs. Eunice Agbede, Mr. Abiodun Olunoiki during an education stakeholders forum on bridging the gap organised by AISEN held in Lagos.

Meanwhile, the programme which held at Ikoyi drew the likes of Director General, Office of Education Quality Assurance, Lagos State Ministry of Education, Mrs Ronke Soyombo and other key stakeholders of both private and public schools in Nigeria, as it was presided over by  Dr Christopher Kolade.

During the deliberation, they all concurred that there are gaps in private and public schools which need urgent attention.

On both sides of the gap, they agreed that there are people of different levels, noting that they can bridge the education gap in people if everyone is dedicated and focused.

The stakeholders who called for dedicated interest in bridging the gap, noted that until that is done, one cannot generate commitment.

They lamented that there are  graduates who can hardly write due to the gap of quality between the public and private schools adding, “we find a way of building a society where we have equal rights.”

It was also pointed out by the discussants that lack of effective implementation of education policies, is one of the causative agents for the gap among students.

Buttressing the views of a discussant who called for  clampdown on mushroom schools, Dr Kolade said; “children are referred to as raw material; the quality of a product largely depends on the quality of the raw material.

“The environmental gap between public schools and private schools should be bridged,” they said.