The Nigeria Union of Teachers Ondo State chapter, has reacted to the call by the Ondo state governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu on teachers to lead by example and enroll their children in the public schools where they teach.
The Chairman of the Union, Peter Dada who spoke on behalf of the Union said there is no way teachers can force parents to enroll their wards in public school since the managers of education, that is, government officials, themselves don’t do the same.
Truthlive.net had reported that the Governor described the decision by public school teachers to enroll their wards in private schools as morally wrong, if indeed they were proud of their places of work.
Also, the Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education in Ondo State was quoted recently as saying that teachers would be held responsible for the low enrollment of pupils in the public primary schools.
However, reacting to the statement, Dada said, “Well, I don’t believe in that; I believe in equity and justice when it comes to the issue like this because if the school environment is okay and conducive, the parents themselves will bring their children to the school for enrollment, after all, many of these parents don’t have the money to send their children to the private schools.
“When the public school environment is not conducive for learning, nobody will bring their children. It is good we have school buildings, we have perimeter fencing but we don’t have (enough) teachers, who are the engine room of any level of education.”
He said, “As I am speaking with you, we have over 13,000 vacancies (for teachers) in the public primary schools in Ondo State.”
“Though we know we have economic challenges in this country, education remains important and should be given top priority and it is the duty of everyone to take it more seriously.”
According to him, “For instance, if today we take a roll call of commissioners, permanent secretaries, directors and other top government officials, whose children are attending or have attended public schools, we will see that the figure will be nothing to write home about.”
“Since these people don’t have their children in these public schools, their focus won’t be on that. So, there is no way they would fund education, most especially, public education, as adequately as should be.”
“Again, most of these private schools you are seeing around are owned by the permanent secretaries, retired permanent secretaries, retired heads of service and all others. With this circumstance, will they be ready to show seriousness or commitment to public education? They know that if public schools are well funded and parents bring their children, they (private school owners) will lose on their investments.
“So you think public schools are deliberately being underfunded to allow for private schools to thrive?”
“Well, if you look at it from one perspective, you will say it is economic recession but if you look at it from another angle, you will say it is deliberate. This is because if you are a businessman and you have a rival, you will not do anything that will give your rival an edge over you. I believe public schools are rivals to private schools and anybody who owns private schools will never do anything that will make the public schools function and progress.
“If you are a director in a government ministry and you have a private school, you will never support any policy or action that will favour the development of public schools. Same goes for the higher institutions of learning.
“If you own a university, you will never pray for ASUU (Academic Staff Union of Universities) to end their strike. That is it. If the strike is ended, many parents, who are considering sending their children to private universities, won’t do so anymore. So, if the owners of the private universities have their way, they would encourage the ASUU strike to continue.
“Do your findings on the owners of private primary and secondary schools, you will discover that they are directors and the permanent secretaries in government employment adding that standard private school cannot be owned by a farmer or a very low income earner; they are owned by the people in government.”
In same vein, the SUBEB Chairman said the question we should ask them is, why appeal to teachers only? Why not all public servants? Why not managers, why not governors? Why not commissioners? Why not top government functionaries? They believe teachers are voiceless in society. But I know one day, God will bring out the voice of the voiceless teachers in this country.
“You can imagine, you are deliberately not funding the public schools and you ask teachers to put their children there! I believe it is deliberate. You know it is us, teachers, who know where the shoe pinches.”
” I know that from Primary One to Three, we don’t have teachers and you want me to put my child there, all because I am a teacher. If you employ teachers and the school is conducive, I won’t need anybody to appeal to me to enrol my children there.”
“No matter what they say, we don’t have teachers. So, if you like it that way, make a policy that will make it compulsory for everybody to take his or her children to the public schools at all levels. That alone will raise our standard of education in Nigeria, he added.