AKURE— IN a bid to provide needed data for formulation of strategic development policies, the federal government has commissioned a census of all private primary and secondary schools in the country.A consultant of the Federal Ministry of Education, and a former Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology Akure, Professor Roberts Ogunsusi told newsmen in Akure yesterday.
An indigenous organization, Mcfoster Solution has been commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Education to carry out a statistical survey of all private primary and secondary schools in the country.
Professor Ogunsusi, added that apart from the data on pupils, students, teachers and their qualification, all available resources and facilities in each school are to be collated and analyzed.
He pointed out that ”a compendium, containing all the information and data collected from the schools will be produced and distributed nationally and internationally.
According to him, the project became necessary following the fact that attention and emphasis have been focused on public schools to the extent that only few private schools are ever mentioned and assisted by people other than their proprietors and their parents/teachers associations.
“In order that these private primary and secondary schools may start receiving the recognition and consideration which they need, serious attention needed to be focused on them.”
While commending the federal Ministry of Education for initiating “a serious interest in the affairs of private primary and secondary education, the consultant said that the information to be collected will be used in updating existing ones on private initiative in the country.”
“It will be of tremendous assistance to the Nigerian government and its agencies in their educational planning efforts.Planners and other experts at the federal and various state ministries of education will use the data collected to find possible clues and control to all vices which lead to poor performance like examination malpractices".
Also he noted that it will “control staff indiscipline, and truancy, laziness and the inability of teachers to give the correct leadership to their students, cultism on campuses of tertiary institutions”.
