‘Free Education Can Reduce Nigeria’s 10.5m Out-of-School Children by 90%’

Gilbert Ekugbe

The Founder of Kingston Nursery and Primary School, Reverend Victor Basola, yesterday stated that Nigeria could reduce the 10.5 million out-of-school children by 90 per cent if managers of the economy would adopt a free education model in the country.

Basola, who addressed a global press conference on free education at the school’s premises in Akute, Ogun State, expressed optimism that Nigeria has the capacity to adopt a free education model, but lacked the political will to make it a reality.

Expressing concerns over the 2024 budgetary allocation to the nation’s educational sector, which is less than the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisations (UNESCO’s) 20 per cent standard, Basola said that the federal government and corporate organisations must come to the aid of the sector by increasing the financial commitments to the sector.

He said: “If education is the key and passport to the future, we must increase the budgetary allocation to the sector by over 15 per cent, but what we see in the country is corporate organisations sponsoring talk shows that displays nudity with over N20 million, but gives the best graduating student of a school N100,000. To me, this is hypocritical.” 

According to him, about 10.5 million children in Nigeria of five to 14 years do not go to school due to poverty.

“Hence, a need for a place like Kingston Nursery and Primary School, an absolutely free school here in Akute, Ogun State should be given the necessary support and encouragement to succeed,” he said.

He pointed out that free education was introduced in Nigeria by Obafemi Awolowo in Western Nigeria in the year 1955, maintaining that it provided opportunities for all individuals regardless of their socioeconomic class.

“When the Universal Primary Education Scheme was introduced to the western region in 1955, pupil enrolment in the primary schools soared from fee paying 446, 600 in 1954 to non-fee 811, 432 in 1955; an increase of over 90 per cent in one year. By 1961 primary school enrolment in the West had risen to 1,134,788 pupils, a significant turnaround in the figure of children in school,” he added.

He called on high net worth individuals, state and federal governments to support his school’s vision of making free education a reality in the country.

“Our students are taught by well-trained teachers in a standard learning environment, given free text books, notebooks and uniforms and one free meal per day in order to ensure their undivided attention and participation.

“In order to attract the best teachers and to honour the dignity and impact of teachers, we ensured that our degree holding teachers are paid a salary of N50,000 which is far above what is obtainable within and around the community.

“We believe that if teachers are well paid, the teaching profession will attract better qualified candidates which will reflect the quality of students.”

Speaking on the challenges the school is experiencing in achieving the free education project, he said that he has been unable to pay the salaries of its staff for two months since inception two years ago, while commending the staff for keying into the vision of the project.

“Getting partners to handle the staff salaries will fix this problem because we want to extend our reach and ability to accommodate more pupils but we cannot take more than what we have.

“Presently, we have grown from 35 pupils at inception to 60 pupils now, which I know has not made any dent on the 10.5 million out of school children we have in Nigeria.

“We will love to take in more pupils and also have branches all over Nigeria in order to bring in enough out-of-school pupils and reduce the number drastically.

“We all know that the influence of the media cannot be overemphasised as it plays a major role in enlightening the masses. Getting media partners will help attract parents who might have given up on sending their children to school because they cannot afford it and partners who might be interested in sponsoring out-of-school pupils.

“There are so many needs to ensure the smooth running of the school, I cannot mention all but these are the major needs we have,” he averred.