Lessons In School Proprietorship

Chapter One.

Mrs. G.M. Owotomo of blessed memory was the proprietor of Grace Day Nursery School, unarguably the most popular school in Ijebu Ode in the nineteen eighties when we established our own school. Despite the fact that she had the high and mighty including the Awujale of Ijebu land as her clients, she did something that surprised people, by refusing to start a primary school. As far as she was concerned, the stress of primary school would be too much for her. She had a very strong nursery school, money, powerful parents etc. but despite all pressures she stuck to her convictions until she brought several other people together to start Oredola primary school. Throughout her lifetime, Grace Day remained relevant as a good school in Ijebu land and still is. Today, all over the landscape of education in Nigeria generally are proprietors who are not counting the cost before starting, and who after realizing that they have bitten more they can chew are not taking the right steps, thus creating avoidable problems which is giving all of us bad names.

There are many of us that started our schools in uncompleted buildings and have remained there for decades, running nursery, primary and secondary schools altogether because we are not even charging fees that can sustain a school. We can’t charge more than what we are charging because we are afraid that our children will be withdrawn to either public schools or other private schools which our schools are not better than our own. They are not better than our own because they are also afraid of charging higher fees that might sustain an educational institution.

Many of us complicate matters for ourselves by running classes that we are not capable of running. There are many of us that started with nursery to upper primary classes at once, forgetting that the staff cost alone can prevent such a school from making progress. To make matters worse, the mindset of most of us is that since you have primary school, you must also have secondary school. We often forget that there is a major difference in the requirement and operations of a primary and secondary school. You need to consider your own educational level or the financial capacity to employ a qualified person who can do the job for you. This is just one out of several factors that has to be taken into consideration. Virtually all of us don’t even stop with junior secondary but go ahead to run senior secondary schools without having the capability to provide the required facilities and the right caliber of staff. Consequently, we now have all manners of private secondary schools. There are several problems which the situation is creating. Continuous stress which is cutting the life of many proprietors short.Lack of respect for owners of schools because many of us are not able to establish and maintain good standards. Inability to provide conducive environment for learning as we can’t afford to do so. Looking for shortcuts for our children to succeed in external examinations, resulting in examination malpractices. This is because such schools don really have the capacity to effectively prepare students for school certificate examinations. SEVEN FACTS FOR YOUR ATTENTION. If you run a good creche or nursery school, you may have greater peace of mind and higher income than what a proprietor who is struggling to run a private nursery, primary and secondary schools will ever have. Most of the proprietors of substandard schools are thriving on the ignorance of a good number of parents who don’t know that public schools are often better than many ‘private’ schools. None of your children may be interested in taking over that school from you in the evening of your life. The reason why you are afraid of charging fees that will sustain your school is the fear of losing your children to public schools. But parents will consider the option of public schools when withdrawing from your school because in the first place, those parents can’t afford private school, you only gave them that illusion because your school was too cheap. For many schools, your SS3 students will not pass any paper in WAEC and NECO if you are not involved in examination malpractices. 

This is because you lack the capacity to prepare your students for school certificate examinations. By getting involved in examination malpractices, you are destroying the future of the students that pass through your school and that of your school. Any school practicing examination malpractices may make momentary gain, but such school may never become a great institution. If you check around you, you are likely to see proofs. God can’t be happy with you, whether you are a Christian or Muslim by getting yourself involved in examination malpractices. It is purely dishonesty. BE BOLD.Taking the decision not to bite more than you can chew requires boldness and determination. Some of the steps to be taken with determination are as follows;To refuse to move from nursery to primary, from primary to junior secondary and from junior secondary to senior if you are not ready either academically, facility wise, staff wise etc. To announce to parents and staff that you are no longer running either Senior secondary or the entire secondary school if sincere personal assessment shows you that you are biting more than you may conveniently chew. To make up your mind that you are going to run a good school which you will be proud of showcasing to others. To face the future doing what you are capable of doing and refusing to join the rat race that is only making mockery of private entrepreneurship in education.CONCLUSION. Biting more than you can chew in running your school is not beneficial to anyone including you! Be bold enough to frankly decide the service you can conveniently provide and do it the best way you can. So help you God!