BY DAYO ADESULU

“No nation can develop in spites of its natural endowment if such nation does not take seriously human capital development which could be

Dr Sunny Attah

derived through sound academic foundation that is tailored towards a good cradle of nursery, primary and secondary school. As a nation, our major focus should be in the education industry because it is the education sector that produces the human capital that is needed to develop other industries of the whole nation. Before a nation could be referred to as developed, she must have developed people that can think for the country.” The proprietor of Mandate Private Schools, Akesan, Lagos, Dr Sunny Attah shared this view recently in a press briefing held at the school. He said that if we want to witness growth in the nation’s economy, concentration should be placed on our nursery primary and secondary schools because this is where the matter is. If the foundation is destroy, what can the righteous do, saying that no matter the oil boom and other natural resources in our country, we need human beings to manage it. And any human being who does not have a sound educational background cannot manage the resources of a nation.

According to Attah, school business is not necessary for profit making, if the right thing is done, you will be able to make profit from it. It is not an investment that you want to make profit from it as soon as you start. If you meet the customers’ expectations, definitely, profit will come and you will be able to expand the business. He lamented a situation where some school proprietors establish schools in a “face me I face you” house and before long, government has given them approval. “A school that the population is not up to twenty-five is registering student for WAEC,” he said.

On the issue of examination malpractice, Attah maintained that Mandate Private Schools has zero tolerance noting that right from nursery to the primary and secondary school he has started inculcating academic discipline into the students. Before we admit any student, he said, Mandate Private Schools will always enquire to know the school he/she is coming from, whether it was an approved school or if they accept external candidate. Attah who heaped the causes of examination malpractice at the door step of external candidate, reiterated that there is no way a school will accept external candidate that it will be free from examination malpractice. The CEO pointed out that though, Mandate Schools accept transfer admission into SS1, SS2 and SS3, however, such students must have joined the school for at least one academic session as the teachers are doing every thing possible to make sure the students pass their exams without assisting them to malpractice. “In Mandate School if your students fail your subject twice below 85% you are sacked as a teacher,” he said. That is our policy and that is why everybody is working hard.

The former Principal urged other proprietors to make sure they employ the right teachers, train and re-train them in order to obtained adequate knowledge. He argued that there is no student that cannot be brilliant if properly thought by good teachers in good principled schools where the owners do not tolerate indiscipline. The problem of students, according to Attah are the school owners. He therefore enjoined school owners to reconsider their objectives for establishing schools adding that if the objective of starting a school is to raise a role model, or raise a leader of tomorrow that will determine how they run the school. But if the objective is to raise money, the attention will not be on the quality of your students. Said he: “The essence of education is to develop human capital that will develop the nation, It is to produce people that are upright and mentally sound to lead the nation.

Speaking on the advantages of Borden school over day school, Attah said that here in Lagos parents go out early in the morning to arrive home late at night without any available time to check the academic performance of their children. Borden school will take care of the lapses. For example, in Mandate, we have the Borden house of one hundred and twenty students capacity. We have a house master, house mistress and hostel mother. Hostel mother, he explained, stays with the students and have access to both the girls and boys hostel. When any of the students is hospitalize the hostel mother is there with him, performing the functions of a biological mother. Therefore, the students don’t feel the absent of their parents because the hostel mother takes charge. This enable them to wake up early, prepare, read their books and go for lectures. The issue of leaving home early and rush to school will no longer arise.

We encourage entrepreneurship development- teach them how to save money, bake, cook variety of food, plant crops and wash clothe.. They produce beads and other netting works. We teach them life issue as not all that glitters is gold. In Mandate school, we don’t allow a child to keep money. All their pocket monies are kept in the account department. If any student is over spending, we alert the parent to bring him to order. We are indirectly teaching them how to manage money. Some of the parents who argued that the school should not control their children spending; we told them that Mandate Schools was not meant for such child. If your child began to learn how to spend all, if he starts work, he will not have savings. We don’t wait until they get into the national assembly before they are thought of moral. We teach them value for humanity.

Attah hinted that he is introducing a new course in his school titled ‘we are the government.’ The purpose of the course, he pointed out is to enable students know their right as we teach them the Nigerian constitution. “If you read Nigerian constitution the way we read our bible we will know our right” he said.