NIGERIA AND FOREIGN SCHOOLS.

Most times I sat down and think about the number of schools owned by foreigners in Nigeria, there are so many of them ranging from primary, secondary to universities.  All these schools collect our monies (The Nigerian Students) and carry them to their beloved countries and use it to better the lots of their citizens and country. This leaves me to the question I now ask myself: how many Nigerian schools do we actually have abroad in other countries, and how many foreigners are actually studying in our local schools here in Nigeria.  It is on records that Nigerian money funds the UK education sector only other countries not included to the tune of over N246 billion annually. According to a research I read published by the British council in 2008, it predicted that the number of Nigerian students in its schools would rise to about 30,000 by the end of 2015. This is just the UK educational sector, I now wonder if other countries like the USA, India, Cyprus, Malaysia etc, publishes their own list, we would be shocked to note that our students would be spending close to our countries annual budget to foreign schools and their respective governments.

   I am not against this in anyway, giving the poor quality of education in our dear country, especially the University education, the incessant strike action that prolongs our duration of studies in our schools, the poor teaching facilities and the unconducive learning environments.      Some Nigerian students in these foreign schools will also tell you that the programs there are shorter and more intense, thereby making it cheaper to afford for them and their parents/guardians. Or is it the honor and reference our local company’s and employers of labour even the government itself accords to the holders of foreign certificates compared to the holders of our own local school certificates.

My reason of writing this piece of work is not to discourage the Nigerian students from studying abroad, or am I in anyway inciting the government to discourage foreign studies by introducing harsh laws that are aimed at discouraging parents from sending their wards abroad to study or is it aimed at stopping foreign nationals from coming into our country to establish more schools. My main reason for writing this is to encourage Nigerian businessmen, businesswomen, educationists also to start looking at establishing our own indigenous schools also in other countries also. At least it is often said that what is good for the goose is also good the ganders. Let the foreign students be encouraged to come to our country also to learn, and let our citizens be allowed to own schools outside there too.

The Criticisms these citizens who try to own schools within and outside the country face is so harsh and that they even end-up been tagged as corrupt. Why on earth should such entrepreneurs be tagged corrupt? They should be encouraged to do so; at least it can be a way of teaching our morals as a nation to other countries and exporting our vast cultural heritage. And it will also go a longer way in lauding the image of our beloved country and also help in promoting inter-national peace and co-operations.

I call on all stake holders in the educational sector to put all hands on deck to handle this with great attention and not with kid’s glove.