KCOBA Calls for Funding, Restructuring of Unity Schools

KCOBA Calls for Funding, Restructuring of Unity Schools

Sunday Ehigiator

As Kings College prepares for its 111th Founder’s day celebration with the theme: ‘Education: The Way Forward,’ the Kings College Old Boys Association (KCOBA) has called on the federal government of Nigeria to restructure the management of all unity schools in the country.

They also called for increase funding for unity schools across the country.

The Vice President, KCOBA, and Chairman, 2020 Kingsweek, Pastor Ituah Ighodalo, made this call Wednesday, while speaking during a media round table organised in preparation of the celebration. The event holds on September 19, and is to be aired via teleconference across various television and online platforms.

Keynote address will be delivered by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo. Speaking further, Ighodalo stressed the need for government to consider handing the management of unity schools in the country to trustees.

According to him, “The discourse for our week this year as you know is the way forward for education in Nigeria. The aim is to see what the government needs to do, what the public needs to do, what the old boys needs to do, and what the other stakeholders need to do, to ensure an improved education for a Nigerian.

“We can see that Nigeria is struggling a little bit in terms of education. First of all, the policies are not too clear, it sure needs a revamp.

“Secondly, the budget for the responsibility that they have taken on, in terms of the unity schools, and also in terms of the universities, is not adequate to effectively fund the required standard, and to meet the demands for education.

“What we don’t understand is why government still insists on allocating that budget to education, when they can find a structure, wherein they can handover some of those schools on some kind of partnership bases to the general public.”

Speaking further, he said: “You can form Trusts for the schools, let the community take it up, like ‘Our Saviours,’ it is owned by nobody but Trusts, which is the combination of teachers, old students and parents. Those are who run ‘Our Saviours. And they run it very well, because they want to run a school of a certain standard that their children can come to.

“Each government school can be structured like that. The government can catalyse it, start it, restructure it, and then hand it over to the general public as Trustees, and then watch and make sure that they are running it and keeping to certain standard. And then they replicate same in other schools.

“This is better. Instead of them wasting their time and energy running and maintaining schools, what they should be doing more is catalysing, forming schools, structuring it, and handing it over.

“That way, they can make so many more standard schools, and make more money. Because, by the time you hand it over, it’s like privatising the schools under some arrangements. Some of those monies comes back, it may not be everything, but some will, then they can use those monies to continue to start another school,” he said.

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