Some proprietors of unregistered schools have explained why they will continue to run such institutions, popularly referred to as “mushroom schools.”
Many of them, who spoke with our correspondent, blamed the high financial demands made on them for the registration of their schools by officials of state ministries of education for the development.
According to them, due to the economic situation in the country, they found it hard to meet the financial demands of the ministries’ officials in charge of the registration of schools.
Similarly, parents on their part, stated that they would continue to patronise the mushroom schools because they could not afford the exorbitant tuition fees charged by the registered and approved schools. Cases of proliferation of unregistered and mushroom schools have recently assumed an alarming dimension across the country, with statistics indicating the increasing patronage of such schools by parents.
Recently, the Federal Government directed the Ministry of Education to locate and shut down such unregistered schools across the country.
But despite the efforts to tame this ugly monster, the mushroom schools have continued to spring up and to grow in number in every nook and cranny of Nigeria and further lowering the standard of education in the country.
These schools are usually staffed with untrained and unqualified teachers.
However, while opinions as to the cause of this development have been diverse, some school owners, parents and teachers have linked this albatross of the nation’s educational system to the poor economic situation.
Some of the owners of these mushroom schools told our correspondent that they fell in the category of such schools because of their poor financial capability to embark on what they termed as a “long process” of registration and approval.
They claimed that the financial demands by the ministry of education to grant them approval was unaffordable, making the processing of the registration of their schools stressful.
The proprietress of Cedar schools, Mowe community, Ogun state, Mrs. Grace Uwalaka, told our correspondent that she could not afford to pay for the procedure and government requirements to register her school.
Uwalaka said that the economic situation compelled her to resolve to run the school without approval and registration within the community in the past few years since she could not afford over half a million naira fee required for such processes.
She said, “It is a very long process because I will have to get the minimum facility before I can establish a school, which is land. Like the name of my school Cedar, if I want to start the approval process, I would have to pay N5,000 just for the name of my school to be checked with what they call a mirror to see if there is another school with the same name in the state and generally.
If there is, I would have to change the name of my own school. I am not ready to go through that process.
So, I am not taking any step further from here and this is the only business I have to earn a living.”
Our correspondent observed that the school was run inside just two rooms, which used to serve as shops. It, however, accommodates students ranging from kindergarten to the basic classes.
Uwalaka said that although many mushroom schools had been shut down by government officials, her own had always escaped such a clampdown because of its remote location.
For her, there was nothing wrong with building children’s education on such a shaky foundation offered by the mushroom schools so long as the fees remained affordable to the parents.
The proprietress of Emmardex International Schools, who simply gave her name as Mrs. Adesina, offered the same explanation as to why she had not also registered her school.
She claimed that all schools operating under the aegis of the National Foundation of Proprietors for Private Schools, whether approved or yet to be approved, were deemed legal.
“We are under the National Foundation of proprietors of Private schools and we are safe. So, registering our school with the Ministry Of Education is not on our mind.
Although we took the step at first, we obtained the form, the process seemed to be taking too long.
So, we quit and if we would go further, it will take about half a million naira and other additional payments, which the officials will collect,” she said.
Investigations revealed that about a hundred of such mushroom schools run by even semi-literate proprietors exist in the Mowe/Ofada axis of Obafemi Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State.
Most of these sub-standard schools, it was learnt, also employed poorly educated and untrained teachers due to their inability to hire well-trained and qualified ones.
A teacher with the Senior Secondary School Certificate earns a maximum of N8000, while those with the National Certificate in Education and Ordinary National Diploma are paid not more than N12,000 monthly.
This meagre pay packet, according to findings, makes the poorly paid teachers not to be committed to their job.
Faith Omolara, a secondary school graduate, told our correspondent that her inability to further her education compelled her to pick up teaching, which was the only available option.
She added that since most of the owners of school would not bother about going round the classrooms to check what teachers were doing with the pupils, it gave the teachers the opportunity to do whatever they liked.
Omolara disclosed that sometimes she would leave the school premises during school hours in search of better paying jobs.
Another teacher, Tina Oruagona, who currently teaches with her ND certificate, confirmed that teaching had become the most available job in Nigeria today because of the proliferation of schools, especially the substandard ones.
She said that since most of them were not equipped, the tuition fees were always so low to encourage parents to enroll their children with them, adding that the meagre salary paid teachers by the owners had negative effect on the commitment of the teachers.
“You do not expect me to be teaching and not get paid properly for it. The fees are too cheap; so we do not get big amounts as salaries,” she said. Mrs. Ayomide Omolola, a mother of three, said the tuition fee determined the school she had to enroll her three children.
“I have always wanted my children to go to school so that I can have a say in the society. I am a cleaner in a school, too, and my husband is a tailor. We can’t afford big schools.
So, we took them to these cheap schools, even though we know they are not being taught well. Although my husband wants them to go to the best schools, he doesn’t have the money,” she said.
When asked why she didn’t take her children to a government school, she complained about the bullying nature of some of the students in public schools, saying she preferred a private school even if it’s not approved.
A trader, Mrs. Fatima Alimatu, said financial constraints compelled her to send her children to sub-standard schools. When contacted by our correspondent for her reaction to the development, the Ogun State Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Modupe Mujota, declined to comment.
