RE: THE GRANDSTANDING ON UNITY SCHOOLS BY IJEOMA NWOGWUGWU (THISDAY OF 6TH NOVEMBER, 2006)

I was looking forward to reading Simon Kolawole last Monday 6th November, 2006 when I bought a copy of THISDAY newspaper. Although I was disappointed when I discovered that it was another columnist that “captured” the “back page extra” that day, the title of the article arrested my attention so I decided to read. I was really disappointed. I had not finished reading the article when the title of my previous article “the disaster called the Nigerian press” leapt into my mind. Here was a columnist, under the disguise of “to inform and educate” doing a public relations job for the Minister of Education and insulting everyone who dared to be different using THISDAY as the machinery for such a misadventure.

Excerpts from the article and comments:

Before I proceed I want to state very clearly that I have nothing against the Minister but I disagree with the new policy thrust. Secondly, I will like to support the motion that our educational sector is in deep and serious crisis. However, I am in agreement with those who hold the view that the solution to the crisis IS NOT privatization or wholesale commercialization of education given the fact that in the final analysis, such a move will simply steal education or whatever remains of it from the poor masses of our country.

A stroll round the streets of our cities and villages between 9am and 3pm when children are supposed to be in school will reveal our nonchalant attitude to those children who daily roam our streets either as almajiris, pure water hawker, a tramp etc. My heart bleeds every time I see these children and sometimes their helpless parents (usually mothers) who use them as beasts of burden. These are children without hope; they are the living dead! It is the social responsibility of government to provide affordable and qualitative education to the masses of this country whether poor or rich. Any bureaucratic bottlenecks or corruption which stand in the way of achieving such objective is a challenge that is begging for attention and not ABDICATION.

Any Ministry of Education that is worth its salt should give us a blueprint that will help solve this problem instead of, according to you proposing that government should continue to fund a scheme that will be run by a profit-oriented private sector. After all, success in any venture is determined by opportunity, strength and threats. Only a lazy or indolent manager will run away from solving problems but will be waiting to be crowned as a hero/heroine. Ask Ribadu or Mallam El-Rufai what it takes to be a hero.

According to you “Funding for the schools under the new proposal will provided by the Ministry of Education via grants per students to the operator managers to fully cover operations in the schools, thereby achieving greater equity and access. Scholarships will also be made available to indigent but gifted children; while employees, and in particular teachers, shall be on the pay roll of the management contractors. Employees under the scheme will be entitled to receive at least the same amount of remuneration and benefits as existed under their prior contracts of employment with the Ministry of Education.”

So from your outlandish model, nothing has changed except that we now have a private sector operator, who will not risk any capital but who will run the model and rewarded with wages and profit.

You also wrote that “Furthermore, any decision to deviate from my comfort zone of finance and economics by venturing into previously uncharted waters of education required that I got a crash programme on the sector”.

Personally, I am of the opinion that finance and economics can only remain your “comfort zone” by sheer display of professionalism and not simply by affirmation. As someone who claims to understand finance and economics, one would have expected you to provide us with a model that will balance the conflicting objectives of the public sector and private sector. It is a well known fact that while the public sector’s objective is to provide services to the masses of the country without regard to profitability, the private sector is largely driven by the profit maximization objective. How do we solve this conflict such that the average Nigerian will not suffer or pay more for less than qualitative service. Or will the private sector agent/s subsidize or provide their services free of charge.

The example of how the practice works in UK did not take into account our peculiar circumstances and the penchant for making unearned profit by both the public and private sector practitioners. There is more than enough evidence to show that Nigerians are being ripped off on a daily basis by private sector operators in the telecommunications and other sectors of our economy. In the UK there are laws and violations are promptly challenged and punished!

Another area of your piece goes thus “Moreover, criticism over Ezekwesili's utterances on the need to alter the current business model used for running these Unity School has been completely distorted out of context. Individuals have capitalized on her choice of words and accused her of equating education with 'business' which needs to re-engineered and made profitable as opposed to the provision of a service for human capital development. Such reasoning is warped and fails to understand that the goal of any investor in education, be they parents, communities or the state, is to get the best value for money".

Madam before you start insulting people, prove first that they are wrong. What is private sector all about if it is not business or the making of profit. A study of elementary economics would have revealed to you this claim by the critics. The reasoning of the critics is “warped reasoning” to you because you refused to distinguish between the objective of public and private sector firms.

More weapons of massive destruction were deployed by you in the following passages:

My take on the debate, especially with regard to the commentary opposed to the privatization initiative, is that most of it has been pedestrian, uninformed and embarrassingly sentimental. Even though I believe in the inalienable right of every individual to air their views, the shallowness of the arguments presented by several commentators left a lot to be desired. If anything, a lot of the reaction convinced me about the desirability of a major overhaul of the education sector.

It also exposed the underbelly of our education sector - a sector which annually churns out uneducated and ignorant Nigerians into society to occupy critical positions in both the public and private sector. It is no wonder that Nigeria today perches precariously on the brink of failure.

My concerns at the utterances of these critics arise from their desire to condemn an initiative they obviously don't understand. Their reaction to the term 'privatisation' is reminiscent of the reaction of the Roman mob in William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, which bayed for blood and was lured to war to avenge the assassination of Caesar after it had been roused by a moving speech given by Mark Anthony. Like the plebeians who lived thousands of years before them, their modern day counterparts in Nigeria fail to see that they have fallen prey to those with entrenched interests; corrupt public servants who been feeding fat off the rot in the system. If they had made the slightest attempt to educate themselves, they would have discovered that the concept of privatisation is broad and encompasses several variations.

Then you provided the reason for anyone not to attach serious consideration to your position in the next sentence when you wrote:

“It quite simply refers to the introduction or participation of the private sector in public sector initiatives. Depending on objectives of the initiator, privatisation could either result in the outright sale/disposal of a public asset to the private sector, or the retention of that asset by the state, but a transfer of its management and/or operations to the private sector".

The key words that caught my attention are “Depending on objectives of the initiator”. So what is the objective of the initiator - to improve education in Nigeria? That can be done without privatization or additional cost that will be incurred in hiring private sector “experts”. Lest I forget will the experts be independent or will they be employees of government. Their status, whichever way it goes will also raise some other questions which the initiator must answer.

So why you have decided to insult critics of this new scheme is something I find very hard to understand.

Unfortunately your analysis is not also convincing enough to make critics shift ground. Finally, what happens to the rights of the child to education as enshrined in our constitution and other international treaties to which Nigeria is a signatory?

There is an ibo adage which was made popular by Chinua Achebe in Things Fall Apart which I will like to share with you today. It goes thus “those whose nuts were cracked for them by the gods should not forget to be humble” .

Therefore before you consider heaping insults on the reading public and critics of this particular policy please endeavour to present your own case in such a way that you will be seen to have educated and informed everyone, including the critics. Please bear it in mind that Nigerians have every cause to ask questions especially in matters affecting the future of the children of this country. We are in a democracy and it is the responsibility of every public servant to address all questions raised by the public, especially the stakeholders.

It is improper for any journalist or columnist to talk down on them or rain abuses on them, especially on issues for which he/she also require a large dose of education and enlightenment.

As someone with “finance and economics” background, I also expected you to furnish us with the cost/benefit analysis of this venture (in real terms) especially the benefits to be derived from the marginal cost of hiring “professional managers”. Over to you, madam.

Taslim Anibaba (FCA). 9th , November 2006

Ps: The article by Ijeoma can be accessed @ http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=62504

Robot  Villager

# 1 RE: THE GRANDSTANDING ON UNITY SCHOOLS BY IJEOMA NWOGWUGWU (THISDAY OF 6TH NOVEMBER, 2006) ...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 09.11.2006 18:02

Exxcuzme  Villager

# 2 Uncle Taslim, You were a known defender of Obasanjo and you should not expect anything better from a man legendary distaste for education. You remember Ali must go? You remember what he said to Falae when he was supposed to be out debating but instead was cooling kampe on the couch? He said something like go on and speak your grammar that you book people know how to do. Do you also remember what OBJoke told some student reps that wanted to know what his program for education would be before he got selected the first time around? He told them that once he becomes the president, he would gather all the stakeholders to determine if education should be free or not etc. So if the President does not deem education important (which should be one of the 1st five pillars of any govt.) why would he not try to privatize all aspect of education? For a man that does not have regard for education, since students are the ones that protest against bad govt. most of the time, why wouldn't he try to get rid of them? Ask your relative in the govt. to go and talk to your man to give the country good educational system. Don’t blame the minister, blame objoke that did not give education proper attention in the first place. After almost 8yrs of his mal administration, there is no upside to our educational system. Posted by Exxcuzme| 09.11.2006 19:17

What?  Villager

# 3 Mrs. Ezekwesili speaks for herself Ezekwesili: The Rot in Our Education System By Bukola Olatunji, 11.10.2006 The Federal Ministry of Education is not scrapping or merging any examination body, the Minister, Mrs. Obiageli Ezekwesili, has said. The Minister, who was a guest of THISDAY’s Board of Editors in Lagos, yesterday said “JAMB is JAMB, WAEC is WAEC, NECO is NECO and NABTEB is NABTEB. “Our putting them in Group D is to say, this is a group dealing with examination. “How do we begin to look at issues of deployment of technology, test administration, how do we get more children to pass the examinations, what role do they (the examination bodies) play in all of these? It is not a consolidation of the exam bodies.” She explained that what the ministry tried to do was to look at its 21 parastatals and the services they provide, from which six groups emerged. Group A, tagged, “Capacity/Economic Development groupí, consists of the National Universities Commission (NUC), National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) and National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) Group B, the “Foundational group” consists of Primary and Secondary Schools, the Universal Basic Education (UBE), Federal Inspectorate Service (FIS), National Teachers’ Institute (NTI) and the Teachers’ Registration Council (TRC). Pry and sec schools Group C, the ëSocial Democratisation groupí consists of the National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE), National Commission for Adult and Non-Formal Education (NM-EC), National Mathematical Centre (NMC), Nigeria French Language Village (NFLV), Nigeria Arabic Language Village (NALV) GROUP D, the ‘Examination group’ consists of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), West African Examinations Council (WA-EC), National Examinations Council (NE-CO) and National Business and Technical Examination Board (NABTEB). Group E, the “Educational Resource group, consists of the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), National Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) and the Education Trust Fund (ETF). The latter also falls into Group F, the ëEducational Finance Group. Ezekwesili also disclosed yesterdayís flag-off of the comprehensive inspection of the 11, 000 secondary schools in the country. According to her, 11, 000 inspectors, in teams of five are going round all the schools in the country, with each team inspecting five schools over a period of four weeks. The inspectors, she said, will be looking at ìteacher quality, instructional materials, learning environment, physical infrastructure, all the things that a Federal Inspectorate ought to have for governing and regulating the sector.” She added that the exercise will be yearly, with next yearís already budgeted for. It will also be extended to primary schools. For the purpose of continuity of the reform programme of the ministry, the Publisher of THISDAY, Mr. Nduka Obaigbena advised the Minister to ‘get the National Assembly to pass a comprehensive Education Billî, which becomes binding on every Education Minister. The document, he added, may be reviewed every five or six years. The Minister agreed that it was a good idea. http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=62859 Posted by What?| 09.11.2006 21:56

tanibaba  Villager

# 4 @exxcuzme Thanks for your comments. I remain a defender of President Obasanjo and I believe that he has the best intentions for this country. I also do not have any problems with the Minister. However, for this "gba ran mi di eleru" (megaphone in THISDAY) that chose to insult Nigerians simply because they are asking questions one cannot but rise up to the occassion. Even the Minister never used such derogatory words or phrases on the Nigerian public in all her presentations. I am a known supporter of this administration and I believe it is not out of place to speak against those who may either knowingly or unknowingly recruit more enemies for the administration through unguarded statements such as are contained in Ijeoma's article. Finally from the look of things the matter is not yet rested so another look at it especially the role of the professional managers, the alternatives available etc can go a long way in helping the committee set up by government to reach a consesus. Afterall, this is not about fighting each other. It is all about agreeing on the same goal but having different methods of achieving the goal. Thanks once again. taslim Posted by tanibaba| 10.11.2006 04:38

philipikita  Villager

# 5 I was incensed by Ijeoma's PR job for the minister. The truth is that a memo from Minister Oby to OBJ, seeking the privatization of Unity schools leaked. The language of the memo was not equivocal, it asked for the schools to be privatized. All these linguistic gymnastics about "public private partnership" "private management" and all that are just afterthought attempts to water down public anger. Agrred problems exist, vested interests are there, the statistics are rotten (credit to Oby for bringing out these statistics for us to know). I admire Oby's commitment and dynamism and courage to take decisions, but the only problem with her and her reform colleagues (El Rufai and co.) is that every solution lies in "privatization". Period. But there is also rot in the private sphere! It is only in Nigeria that governmnet monopolises the running of schools. They want to award contracts from Abuja. What is wrong with having local school Boards of all community stakholders and giving them grants to manage the schools? This would not be the same as "private". anything "private" connotes "seeking profits" as opposed to voluntary or NGO groups (religious organizations, Parents, Community groups etc). , management of schools could be handed over to "private consultants" (profit seeking vampires!) Or handed over to school boards than can be constituted from stakeholders, whose opreations would be open and transparent. Oby should stop using the word private. The public is afraid of private interests in Nigeria. Voluntary groups and NGOs are non-profits and would be more open! The difference is so clear. Posted by philipikita| 10.11.2006 07:09

Vaya con Dios  Villager

# 6 Quite frankly, this privatisation business is beginning to get out of hand. If the sun does not shine tomorrow, there are people that will say "privatise it," instead of seeking to understand the cause of the problem & trying to fix it. Those who attended unity schools are aware that such schools promoted good quality education and inter-ethnic bonds of friendship, among kids from different backgrounds. The Education Minister's privatisation bid is not going to solve the problem. At one forum, she claimed that the Ministry of Education had become a "Ministry of Unity Schools" whose focus had deviated from its' core functions. Good. She has identified the problem. Won't it be better to steer the Ministry back into its' core functional areas? Can't she identify the point at which the schools went bad, and try to rectify the problem? Privatisation is NOT the answer. Making people take responsibility for their actions, is. If teachers are the cause of the problem, they should be held accountable. If teachers have abdicated their teaching functions in those schools, and have allowed students to prance about the town instead of staying in school, then they should be checked. If teachers are comfortable with the fact that their kids are failing in large droves every year & have done nothing to improve their teaching methods or provide solutions that will reverse the trend of such failure, then they should be held sanctioned. Here is another viewpoint t... In this article, titled Why we oppose privatisation of Unity Schools—UNIONS By Victor Ahiuma-Young of Vanguard Newspapers, Posted to the Web: Thursday, October 26, 2006 According to Comrade Olaitan, the group’s immediate response to allegation of poor performance is that if the schools are truly not performing well, why is it that the Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, Directors and who is who in government and the society fall on top of one another to guarantee a place for their children/wards in these same colleges? “Somebody somewhere must be telling lies to the entire Nigerian people. Moreover, our investigation in respect of the performance profile of some of the schools sampled revealed that the average performance in almost all the subjects is over 90%. Some of the schools sampled include Federal Government College, Odogbolu, Queens College Lagos, Kings College Lagos and Federal Government College, ljanikin. This fact can be verified from WAEC which is in custody of the results of the schools. The parents on their own would withdraw their children or refuse to patronise Unity schools without prompting if the situation on the ground is as bad as what the Minister had painted. Everyone knows the way the budget has been implemented from 1999— 2004. Budget implementation has been characterised by non release of funds as stipulated in the approved budget, particularly under capital expenditure. We demand that the Minister should publish released funds under capital expenditure, school by school, and the officers that collected the money. In fact the situation before 1999 was more pitiable in terms of funding. Posted by Vaya con Dios| 10.11.2006 11:37