Most private schools are mere recreational centers – Prince Williams

How did the First Islamic English Education Foundation start? I came up with the idea of modern Islamic education whereby we combine secular education with modern Islamic training, instead of the experience most of us had in the past when we went to secular school in the morning and Islamic school in the evening. That […]

How did the First Islamic English Education Foundation start?
I came up with the idea of modern Islamic education whereby we combine secular education with modern Islamic training, instead of the experience most of us had in the past when we went to secular school in the morning and Islamic school in the evening. That shouldn’t be in the 21st Century.
Islam is a way of life; schools should be able to allow Muslim students practice Islam, not just practicing it but to live with it.
I can’t mention the achievements of the school for now until I am able to achieve my dream of having this type of school in every local government of Nigeria. We must ensure that Muslim children would not be suspecting non-Muslim children and vice-versa.

Given that there are so many private schools in this country, what is the missing link that the Academy is providing in terms of quality of education?
If I take a stroll down memory lane; before our school started, private schools were being operated as limited liability companies. We brought to the attention of the government the need to begin to approve private schools separately. It was when I had tutorship with the officials at the Ministry of Education, especially in Lagos here, that they realized they had to approve schools. And how do they approve schools? They have to make sure that the schools are in conformity with the schemes and curricula obtainable at the Ministry of Education. People don’t know the essence of private schools till date. It is those schools that provide what government schools or public schools cannot provide hence my coming into the system is to provide full functional Islamic education.
Most school owners today don’t know the essence of private schools; they want to make profit. You don’t sell education, you provide education. Private schools are usually schools for the aristocrats. Most of the schools people call private schools today are what I can call recreational centers because most of the school owners are not good enough to train others. We are here today because ministries of education at all levels have completely failed in Nigeria. Most of the staff of those ministries are the owners of majority of private school. The first set of approvals granted to private schools in Nigeria was through my handiwork and that was in 1988. This school happened to be number three on that list after Air Force and Naval schools. Let the government of Nigeria provide enough schools for the teeming population first with standard curricula, not borrowed curricula, the standard curricula that suit our educational requirements.

 Public education is considered important in the early years, what are the immediate steps to take to improve its quality?
In Lagos, I know that most of the so-called private schools are owned by either an ex or dismissed staff of the Ministry of Education or some ambitious ones. I can tell you today that there is no quality education in Nigeria except in few schools. Outside here, there is no quality. If you want to have quality education in Nigeria, let the government drastically reduce the number of private schools in Nigeria, that is the only way out and I am sure the ministries of education have the yardsticks.