By Olayinka Ajayi

Concerned with the drastic drop in quality of education in Nigeria, Mr. Nkem Osuagwu, President of the Old Boys Association, Government Secondary School Afikpo in the old Eastern region, present-day Ebonyi State Old Boys Association, Lagos Branch, with a membership of over 100 past students, speaks on how the private sector and other formidable old students associations could collaborate with the government to revamp the lost glory of government schools across Nigeria. Excerpts:

Despite the springing up of countless private schools from the early 80s, what is your take on the quality of education compared to your days before and after the civil war?

We had the privilege of knowing what education was before the war, what it was immediately after the war, and what it is presently. Before the war, the clamor for secondary school education into government secondary schools and missionaries was great. Private schools were rare to come by and were the least considered, but now is the very much reversed situation. Presently, private schools are the number one, while government-owned schools are the last.

What, in your view, could lead to the nightmare?

I wouldn’t say it is a deliberate effort by owners of private schools to bring down government-owned schools to ridicule. It is more like what society had turned to because the rot actually started after the civil war., the military setups, and their idea on how education should be. It deteriorated until private secondary schools started springing up. I believe the private schools started springing up because they saw the lowering of levels in government schools. Presently, most government schools are nothing to write home about; most of them are in a sorry state. Which was why those of us who had the privilege of what it was before were pupils there today to enjoy it.

What do you then make of the government to enjoy the loan?

The loan is not for the secondary schools but for tertiary institutions. What the government is planning to do is make it free, but if you go to many of the states, where secondary school is supposed to be free and compulsory, that’s not what really counts; it’s the quality you are bringing in. I would not send my child to such a school if the quality is bad. So there should be more of what to do to improve the quality of education across the board.

Some academics are strongly of the view that there is a need for collaboration and that the government cannot do it alone.

The government should make it conducive for the private sector to come in. In some countries, it comes through tax relief, making certain businesses thrive better. Secondary school is so critical in the development of a nation because it’s built you for tertiary education. Apart from the private sectors, the Old Boys/Student Associations too still hold a lot to the schools, which is where we are coming in from. We encourage the old boys or old students to visit their schools from time to time. In our own institution, we have occasional homecoming exercises where we go back to the school to interact and see how we can assist.

So what are the Old Boys doing to bring back the glory of Government Secondary School Afipo?

As one of the prominent schools in the eastern region, immediately after the civil war, things started sliding. But our old boys have been very active in trying to bail out by sustaining the standard of the school. We have been able to galvanize ourselves by investing conceivably in infrastructural development in the school and providing IT capacity for training the students. We have also helped in improving the standard of teachers.

One of the initiatives we also employed in the past was the option of setting up a trust to run the school, and that conversation has started with the government of Ebonyi State, but unfortunately it has not become a reality. We have taken up the responsibility to run the school on behalf of the state government, but the details have not been worked out before the conversation started.

So what are the OBA Lagos executives doing in actualizing these agendas?

Like other branches, we do intervene in the school infrastructural projects like the assembly hall, library, class room rehabilitation, and water supply to the school; we recently refurbished the student common room and the school captain residence. In most schools, they have problems with science courses. Many schools don’t have the right quality of science teachers. In our school, the old boys employed and paid science teachers.

How would you urge other old students to help revamp their school and better the quality of Nigeria’s education?

I would encourage all schools that have strong old student associations not to look back. Life is not about what you get out of it, but also what you put in. If that is the school that brought you to where you are, you have the duty to look back and do something to ensure the standard in the school is sustained and the coming generation enjoys the quality education you enjoyed in your own time. It is an appealing task, but it is also our responsibility to focus on it and try to do our best to sustain the standard.

How can our educational system be more competitive with the western world?

The failure of public schools has to do with poor governance in the past 40 years. So the key thing is for the government to be more responsive, knowing that by bringing up or training children from secondary school, they are building the country. If that foundation is right, the country will be moving forward. So basically, the government needs to work hard to restore confidence in public schools.

How can japa syndrome be discouraged?

The government cannot run away from their responsibilities. Government policies guide anything you do in the education sector and every other sector of our economy. Budgets are being prepared by all the states of the federation. Have you looked into the percentages granted to education? It is quite low in many states. For you to get something of high quality, train the people, provide enough resources to provide quality education, and also provide the right environment to retain them. During our period, immediately after our graduation, those that traveled out came back to the country. Unfortunately now, when people go out of the country, they just stay back.

The government should create opportunities that would make the economy grow. If our economy is vibrant enough, nobody would like to go to another man’s country to leave like a second-class citizen. So the government should provide quality education and what is required to retain people here. With that, the japa will just drop. Before the war, people from other countries like South Africa, Cameroon, and Kongo were coming to attend our schools because the quality of education was so high.

We had it very good, which is why it pains us that we look around and what we see is not anything close to what it used to be. The private secondary schools of today didn’t give the quality of education government schools had before the war. The discipline is not there. The discipline we had at that time is part of what is guiding us today.