Fashola Seeks Private Sector Collaboration To Foster National Development

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), at the weekend canvassed collaboration between Government and the Private sector to fashion out a new curriculum that would relate to the needs of the society in order to produce appropriate manpower for national development.

Governor Fashola, who spoke at the 104^th Kings College Founders’ Day Lecture organized by the Old Boys’ Association of the institution (KCOBA), pointed out that as a result of lack of such curriculum, the nation is producing manpower where its economy no longer needs them.  

Speaking on the theme: “Public Private Partnership as Strategy for Education”, at the Kings College Assembly Hall, Tafawa Balewa Square in Central Lagos, the Governor said “The nature of the Nigerian Economy has changed over the last 50 years but the curriculum has remained almost the same adding that in order to change this trend and stem the increasing army of unemployed graduates, the review of such curriculum was not only necessary but also expedient.

He called for the harmonization of the school curriculum and calendar pointing out that the first sign of malfunction in the Education system was the lack of harmony in content of learning and times of vacation and resumption among schools. 

“One of the things that I believe Government must also do is that we cannot afford to have discordant school curriculum in any part of Nigeria. The first sign of malfunction is when one school is closing, another school is opening. Indeed, if it is possible, without .centralization, there is a sense in which you know that a nation is making progress when they begin to speak the same language on the same issue through many independent voices that operate like a well choreographed orchestra”, the Governor said.

He cited the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) programme in which he noted sadly that because of lack of harmony in the university system, the programme has been broken into tiers in order to accommodate all the students graduating at different periods of the year.
“The problem cascades right from the bottom to top such that I don’t know how many tiers of NYSC that we have. But there was only one NYSC when I left school. And instead of addressing the problem, we have provided escapes, create tier 2, create tier 3, create tier 4. But the real problem is that there is no harmonized calendar for Education”, the Governor said.  
Governor, Fashola also advocated the adoption of endowments by Private Sector operators, especially in tertiary institutions, as a viable intervention strategy in the development of Education in the country pointing out that endowing funds in the nation’s tertiary institutions would boost the quality of education as it would enable them undertake research and training to improve learning in the institutions.
The Governor urged more Private Sector operators and privileged individuals to begin to endow funds in universities as the quickest means for transforming the nation’s education system.
He told the prominent individuals from both public and private sectors that constitute the Old Boys of the century old institution, “A lot of the members of the privileged class must begin to think of endowing funds in the universities in much more numbers than we have seen it happen now. They help research and advance civilization”.
“The budget available and reserve funds of institutions like John Hopkins, Harvard and others, sometimes outstrip the budget of some states like Lagos when you convert them in absolute terms. But they have not come only from government and taxpayers. They have come from subventions, grants and so on that has been put up by public spirited individuals, development-oriented and far-sighted human beings like we have here. It is a place that I think all of us should be looking,”, the Governor said.   

Governor Fashola also enjoined the Private Sector operators and privileged individuals to invest in infrastructural facilities in tertiary institutions as a means of improving the quality of  the learning environment in the institutions expressing dismay that “some of the schools that we call universities don’t have the look and the feel of a university”.

“Perhaps one area where I think the impact of private capital would be defining and impactful would be in the tertiary level in terms of quality. It will help undebatebly in terms of infrastructure”, he said adding, however, that government must retain its role in funding and regulation.
 Such areas of investment, the Governor said, include building hostels where students can pay for proper accommodation, maintaining and cleaning up such hostels, building of staff clubs and staff houses for university lecturers as well as improving the teaching and learning environment in a way that it helps to improve the sense of a university.
According to the Governor, “There is a sense when you enter a university you see that the architecture changes. The atmosphere is in every way both inspiring and aspiring. And that is lacking in most of the schools that we call university today. I think in those areas there will be significant opportunity for the private capital to really give a direct shot in the arm”.
He, however, warned that while the Private Sector is performing such role in the nation’s institutions, government, as regulators of education, must be able to regulate in such a way that while the operators make returns on their investments, there is a balance that precludes profiteering.

“It seems to me that while the Private Sector Operators continue to perform this sense of Corporate Social Responsibility, all of us who are passionate about Education must understand that Government, as regulator of Education, cannot abdicate its responsibility to the Private Sector”, the Governor said.

Noting that the business of private capital is to look for returns, Governor Fashola declared, “Government’s role must be to create a balance where private capital can come and broaden the width of resources required to provide support in Educational institutions but also to regulate in such a way that while profit is being made, there is a balance that precludes profiteering. It is a difficult balance to strike but it is a balance that we must strike”.

On what the State Government has done in the area of using the Public Private Partnership (PPP) strategy to enhance the Education System in the State, Governor Fashola said his administration has created opportunities for the Private Sector and private individuals to intervene in the system.

“In terms of infusing a PPP in our schools, what we have done is to create a regime that expands the opportunity for intervention in a structured and regulated manner under the Lagos State Adopt-A-School programme. We have developed that policy. We hold an annual general meeting every year since 2008 and I have not failed to attend one meeting because it is important to us”, he said.

According to Governor Fashola, “Today there are 177 different bodies who have signed up to that scheme and the numbers are growing. We give credit for what we receive, we monitor  its deployment and we come back to report every year. So this has led to the infusion of people who until now were circumscribed by the way in which they could assist in schools”.

“Some have taken up laboratories, some have taken up whole schools, some have taken up individual classrooms, some have simply said they want to provide ICT facilities. And we have had a structured engagement with them”, the Governor said adding that this has helped in no small measure to improve the quality of infrastructure and by extension, the quality of learning in the schools.

He also said that in order to harmonize the school curriculum and calendar and enhance the quality and content of learning in the State’s public schools, his administration has taken the Policy initiative to unify the calendar in all Lagos public and private schools before the end of this Academic session adding, “There must be a day when all schools in Lagos open and there must be a day when all schools in Lagos close”.

 On the curriculum, the Governor declared, “Every month, for example, I sit down with the Permanent Secretaries leading the six Education Districts in our State and we conduct a root-and-branch examination of all the problems across the education system from primary to tertiary education and this has helped to ramp up the quality of teaching and quality of learning. Every year now, there is a planned programme of training for our teachers. When the students are on vacation they are always in training during the long vacations”.

The Governor, who observed that the idea of Public Private Partnership in the Education sector was not a novel idea, recalled that the partnership had existed for over 50 years in the country citing Saint Gregory’s College Obalende,  Saint Finbar’s College, Akoka .and Vivian Fowler Memorial College, Ikeja, among other private schools that began many years ago in the State.

Governor Fashola thanked the KCOBA for the courtesy of their invitation pointing out that the entire membership should be proud that after 104 years, the institution that moulded them for their life battles is still standing even as he expressed regrets that many schools over the years have simply disappeared.

Another Guest Lecturer at the occasion, Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross Rivers State, painted very depressing picture of the Nation’s Education System citing as one of its biggest problems the poor state of tuition and intake at the tertiary level.

He declared, “The problems of the Nigerian Education Sector are further exacerbated and crystallized at the tertiary level. Firstly, the Nigerian University System is in a crisis of manpower. According to the 2012 All Africa.com report by Ladipo Adamolekun, the former Dean of the Faculty of Administration, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, only 43 percent of academics in Nigerian universities are PhD holders”.

Imoke advocated the decentralization of the Education System in the country with more responsibilities given to the states adding that in order for the system to be adequately funded, the right environment must be created for Private Sector participation while government must actively pursue private management of public institutions.

Prominent among those present at the occasion were onetime Federal Commissioner for Works, Alhaji Femi Okunnu (SAN), Commissioner for Science and Technology, Mr. Biyi Mabadeje, Chairman Board of Trustees of KCOBA, Dr. Sonny Kuku, the Managing Director of LAGBUS, Mr. Tunde Disu, who are all members of KCOBA and other top government functionaries.