It is a fact that the education sector in Nigeria is going through some challenges. That the country has the highest number of out-school-children already explains the fact. It is a rude statistics that has continued to disturb all stakeholders in the nation’s education sector for more than a decade and if nothing drastic is done to arrest the situation, the statistics behind that fact may ascend to a much more disturbing height.
Although the reforms in the Nigeria’s education sector has seen to the libralization of that sector with many private schools coming up to fill the void, but it is not in doubt that even the private sector involvement in the education sector is a mere drop in an ocean of void.
Whereas the involvement of the private sector in Nigeria’s education has largely helped to provide more accommodation for the children of the elite, it has not made much impact in providing a space in the classroom for children of those in the lowwest wrung of economic and social distribution of resources.
There have been conversations in political quarters and from education managers on the need for the government to up its budgetary allocation to education, but the hydra-headed problem of insecurity and dwindling government’s revenue seems to make the call impracticable. In one breath, government seems to have its focus, and rightly so too, on military and security investments, in the same breath, the instability in the global price of crude oil which is Nigeria’s highest source of revenue has put a stringent measure on government’s spending.
However, the complexity of Nigeria’s education sector decay requires an emergency situation – an urgent need for huge financial investment in the sector. But here we are: how do we rescue our education sector without a strain on government’s purse?
To come out of this dire situation will require us to think outside the box and find creative alternatives if the purse is dry. Imperatively, those willing to rescue the situation must be encouraged.
The time has come for us to initiate new thinking and get workable modules that will revive Nigeria’s public education.
For instance in most first generation secondary schools, the old students have largely been responsible for the infrastructural uplift in those schools, up to the point of those alumni or alumnae association being responsible for the recruitment and remuneration of teachers.
Thus, there have been debates about how state governments can partner with these associations in the management of first generation schools. For those old students, it is a case of putting their money where their mouth is.
A case in point is Government College Ibadan, a school founded in 1929 and with an enviable portfolio of influential old boys. The Government College Ibadan Old Boys Association has sunk millions of Naira in infrastructural developments as well as recruitment of teachers over the years. It is on the back of these efforts that some of the old boys are now making a case to the Oyo State government to allow the association manage the school either independently or in an arrangement with government.
In a video that has gone viral on some social media networks and blogs, an old student of GCI, Benjamin Amodu, a social media influencer narrated the perilous condition of infrastructure in the school and made an appeal to the government of Oyo State to let the GCIOBA have full control of the management of the institution, that the old boys famously refer to as School of Our Pride.
The documentary: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CTmXAXiHNOw/?utm_medium=share_sheet has generated thousands of views and commentaries from other old boys who express similar sentiment in appealing to the government to let the GCIOBA be a principal partner in the management of the school.
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It is a fact that GCI has produced giants in diverse fields of human endeavours. Many of them renowned in their respective fields and as epitomes of great exploits in academics, medicine, technology and so on, either in public or private sectors. It is not unexpected that the old boys should feel embarrassed about the current condition of a school with such A-listers in its hall of fame.
An old boy, Samsideen Adesiyan while reacting to the viral video said that “without the intervention of the old boys through the years, the school would have been worse off.”
Adesiyan remarks further, “if you take a walk around the school’s premises, you will marvel at the spate of developments which the old boys are solely responsible for. However, there is still a long way to go. ”
He argues that the old boys have made tremendous contributions to the current state of the school, both morally and financially. The idea, he said, “is to sustain the legacies of the school.”
“So, we are simply asking the state government to appraise and sanction our desire to run the school based on mutual agreements to the benefit of the school,” Adesiyan submitted.
Other old boys commenting on the issue say the desire to take over the school is a recurrent one at the Annual General Meetings of the association and are convinced that the GCIOBA has the financial strength to restore the school to its enviable height.
Another old student, a United States based scholar and nuclear scientist, Professor Ayodeji Alajo, in an interview with a Lagos based TV station remarked that, “the idea of state’s total control of schools has long become obsolete globally.”
According to him, “a school with a rich history and tradition like Government College Ibadan and many of its kind in Nigeria ought to have incorporated alumni into their management. It is a win-win for the school, its alumni and government.
“If the government has a willing partner in an alumni association that is ready to share the burden of effective running of the school, GCI will be better managed and will be a source of pride to all,” Alajo remarked.
He cites examples of schools in the United States that have old students or alumni associations as their management overseers and Board of Trustees despite the active involvement of government as investors.
“What a lot of people do not realize about GCI is that it was a modeled after Eaton, the best public secondary school in the United Kingdom at the time it was founded in 1929. Eaton, by the way, is still top of the list of public secondary schools in the world.
“Government College Ibadan is a school with tradition and principles passed down through generations. The question that needs answering is whether the GCI is in shape to make it compete with its peers globally considering its history. The obvious answer is No. And that for us who are alumni of the school weigh heavily on our chests. We know quite well that the current administration has done remarkably well in rebuilding confidence in public education in Oyo State. We commend the administration but it is not in dispute that government has too much on its plate and that is why we are offering to ease the burden with respect to the effective running Government College Ibadan,” Alajo submitted.
As old students of the famous Government College Ibadan seem to be relentless in their advocacy to take over the management of their alma mater, what is left to be seen is if the Oyo State government will open its mind to the suggestion.
