Michael Dosunmu: Why We Need to Fix Nigeria’s Primary Education

Westerfield College recently received the approval of the government of the United Kingdom to open a campus in the United Kingdom. The founder of the institution, Mr. Michael Dosunmu, talks about what it means for a Nigerian educational institution to expand to the UK. Dike Onwuamaeze brings the excerpt:

What informed your decision to establish the Westerfield College in The United Kingdom when you have not conquered most Nigerian cities?

If the definition of conquering Nigeria is to be in every state or every metropolitan in the country, then that is not a vision for us. The beauty of education, especially at the higher level, is that universality that makes the institution a melting pot for cross-cultural learning. The goal is not to be in every State or every metropolis in Nigeria. And if you ask me, we have conquered Nigeria because we are exactly where we want to be. We purposely built our first school in Yaba, Lagos State. So we are intentional about exactly what we wanted to do; the kind of education we wanted to deliver, which was what we did in our first ever campus in Yaba. When Yaba became too small, God granted us grace to be where we are now in Victoria Island, which is six times bigger than Yaba. We also wanted to carter for the northern part of Nigeria. So, our next school after that in Lagos is Kano.  It was a strategic move to Kano. We are also in Abuja, which is a nice melting pot for Nigeria. Abuja defines Nigeria and is home for all Nigerians. Abuja typifies the spirit of Nigeria. So, for me, we have conquered Nigeria. On what informed our choice for the United Kingdom (UK)? The programmes we offer in Nigeria are predominantly British programmes. What we offer here is called International Foundation Programme and the Cambridge A Levels. These are programmmes that are geared toward getting students into the UK. It is called sixth form education in the UK. And that is what we offer. We set out as a British school from the very first day. We have world class mindset from the very beginning. We were careful about crafting the mission, vision, goals and core values of the school. The culture that informs the way we drive the school is global from the very beginning and we did not want to do a school that is just of Nigerian standard. The UK expansion is actually because our vision has been global from day one. We wanted to teach students from Asia, Europe, and America. In the world there are places that are called source markets for students and there are places that are called destination markets for students. Nigeria is not yet a destination market for students at the moment. But we are proudly Nigerian and that vision of teaching the world still remains and wherever it can be actualised we will go out and do it. The UK has a history of being an amazing study destination. It is maybe the top-one or top-two in the world. The UK is a very strong and renowned destination that sells itself. It lends credence to what we are doing, especially as our programme is built around the British educational system. 

What were your educational and career background before you started the Westerfield College?

I got into University of Lagos (Unilag) as a teenager. It was the only university that I had wanted to attend. I studied Mass Communication. Before I got to the Unilag I had been presenting on radio and television. My dream in life was to be a radio or television broadcaster because I had been doing teenage programmes on Ray Power radio and the African Independent Television (AIT). May God bless those who set up Unilag’s Department of Mass Communication that prepared me for what I am doing today.  I got my first job when I was a year two student at Unilag. It started when I was in year two and was invited to speak at a welcome party for British universities visiting Nigeria. I was 19 then. I attended and was asked if I wanted a job by one of the universities, the University of Bedfordshire that was called the University of Luton at the time. The job waited for me for two years so that I would finish from Unilag. That was how this whole journey started for me. Later on I went to the UK to study human resource management at the masters’ level at the University of Hertfordshire, which is where my career actually started. My job was to build the university’s brand in Nigeria. I did that for five years before Westerfield College started. Also I went to the University of Northern Carolina in the United States of America where I studied for MBA.

How did you end up a proprietor of an educational institution seeing that you had no background in education?

It started with an offer to stay in Nigeria and work for the University of Luton. It introduced me to the marketing of education. I did that for the university for four years. Then I left and set up my business in Nigeria to represent and build the brand of the University of Hertfordshire in Nigeria for five years. My first business was called Mode Education that recruits students into post graduate courses and undergraduate courses for what is called foundation programme in an embedded college that offer pre-university courses, which is called Year Zero in The UK. That recruitment into Year Zero programmes was what birthed Westerfield College. Some students from Nigeria were admitted in The UK at the age of 16 and 17. It gave me an opportunity to see them from when they were very young in Nigeria and how they transition in The UK and how that transition affected them. Because of my position I could see the rather unsavory part of this transition at their young age. I then decided that it will be nice for us to create a school in Nigeria where the students can study for an extra year and mature more before going to The UK. It was solving this problem that informed the setting up the Westerfield College. 

How are you structuring your template for the UK’s campus of Westerfield College?

The template we have deployed in Nigeria is what we are going to take global. We have a working Nigeria system at Westerfield College, which is what we are going to export. So, we are going to be a proudly Nigerian school in The UK. We are going to be ambassadors of Nigeria in The UK. We owe a responsibility to Nigeria to do it well and ensure that people can say good things about Nigeria. Our vision is to impact the child, impact the world and success story for us is a story of changed lives. Our goal is to have students who can attribute their successes to the experience they had at Westerfield College. This is exactly what we are going to take to the world.

Will you be targeting the Nigerian community in the UK?

No. Our target in the UK is not the Nigerian community. We intend to be a proudly Nigerian school in the UK that is teaching students from all over the world. It does not matter to us where the kids are coming from. At the moment, we have established offices in 10 countries. We are in China, India, Botswana, Egypt, Morocco, Ghana, The UK, U.S.A, Kenya, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The impact is what matters. 

What unique offerings will you be providing to make your UK school a proudly Nigerian educational institution?

The programmes we are delivering here are not from Nigerian curriculum. We offer British education system. And we are going to offer that in The UK. In terms of things that will make us proudly Nigeria: the first is food. We are going to have British foods and at the same time have a global café that will sell Nigerian foods like jollof rice, suya, etc. Secondly, Nigerian music is global at the moment. So do not be shocked when you see Davido, Whiskey, Bona Boy, etc. Our campus in Midland, United Kingdom, is very beautiful. It is close to 100 acres of land with rolling hills and clock tower that was used in the world war. (People travel to London to see the Big Ben, so we have the Big Ben on the campus). I worship at Daystar Christian Centre and there is going to be a youth church of Daystar on the campus. There are good things in the culture of Nigeria. Everything good about our culture in raising young people will be promoted while keeping with the culture of the UK. We have halls of residence for girls and boys. We have a stable so that people can ride horses. We have swimming pools, football pitches, lawn tennis courts, cricket pitch, and our own Japanese garden. We have a lake and people can fish on campus. But we are going to be very exclusive and selective. Only the best 150 students across the world will be accepted in the school every year.

Is the land a purpose-built school?

The site has been a school since 1916.

Are there Nigerians in Diaspora who are bringing their children to Westerfield College in Nigeria?

Yes! There are lots of Nigerians in diaspora who like to send their kids here. That happens.

What are your views on how to strengthen the Nigerian educational system?

There is a lot of emphasis right now on the university system when you hear government’s policies. But I think that that is not where the problem is. What I will recommend is to go far below the university system and fix the elementary education. It is sickening that we have Nigerian university graduates who cannot speak English which is the sole language of instruction in Nigeria. But you do not learn to speak English in the university. You learn it in the primary school and not even secondary school. I think that what we need to do in Nigeria is to fix the primary level of education.  It is broken from that stage and that is what my recommendation will be to the government. We need to fix primary and secondary education and the university will fix itself eventually.

What has been the success rate of Westerfield College?

There are two success rates you can measure. The first one is academic success, which is 100 per cent for students who complete their courses. For progression to university, it stands right now at 95 per cent. We are proud to say that we have 95 per cent of our students being placed into universities across the world, including Nigeria. We currently have our students in 100 universities around the world in Canada, Australia, The UK, United States of America, Grenada, Spain, Hungary, France, Republic of Ireland, Nigeria, and Ukraine. Grenada is a very important country for us because it has one of the best medical schools in the world, the St. George’s University School of Medicine. Students come to Westerfield College and take a three-term program, which gives them access into third year of the medical school. 

What are the programmes Westerfield College will be offering in the UK?

We are going to offer five different programmes. In Nigeria, we are offering two programmes. We offer an international foundation programme with 10 streams that are designed after faculties in the universities such as law, engineering, etc. These foundation programmes are further broken down into destinations. We have a foundation programme for the UK, USA, Canada and Australia. They are all under the International Foundation Programme. Then we have the A’Level Cambridge programme, which is a two year programme that gets students into first year university study in any country. In the UK we are offering additional set of programmes. We are still going to offer the same foundation programme with the exception that it is not going to be designed to take you to any other country. You must go to a UK university. What we will offer in the UK is called degree foundation programme. The second programme is the Cambridge A’Level. The third programme is Summer Camp for children from age 10 up to 17 only for the holiday period. We will also offer a range of English programme such as the EAP: English for Academic Purposes and the ESOL, which is English for Speakers of Other Languages. It is for students from countries like China where English is not widely spoken. They come to us to study one year English course to get them ready for university. The EAP is where students learn specialised English for a particular degree. Our fifth programme is Pre-Masters that is open to students from any country in the world whose bachelor’s degree is deemed inadequate to get them into universities. They come to us to study one semester course and that will prepare them, upscale their academic and English language ability to get into the universities. These are the five programmes that we offer in the UK.

What challenges did you encounter while trying to set up in the UK?

First, it took us four years of mostly rejection to find the right place to site the school. It was a difficult process of being able to afford it but just couldn’t get it. We experienced rejection at site where the school is presently sited until it came through. But getting approval from the government was not difficult.