RETURN OF SCHOOLS TO OWNERS (MISSION).

There has been an unending stream of questions as to what is wrong with our educational system. The decadence in the system has nose-dived into a worrisome dimension. But the answers to these questions are not far-fetched. Before independence, the standard was high; that was why standard six of those days were higher than the degree from today’s universities.
However, some years after independence the system began to lose its texture, in terms of standards, organization, discipline, and policies. This was because there was a departure from the ideologies of the missions who owned a majority of the schools. Those who had the foundation of the decadence and eventual collapse of the entire system began to advocate for the return of the schools to their former owners. Even the missions agitated for the return, but their requests were not granted.
The truth of the entire matter is that, over time, the policies that had been put in place had never been effective. Right from the primary to the tertiary level, government has failed, both in policy formation and execution. Though there has been a lot of monetary investment by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), but all of these have not paid off because of corruption.
Years back, the government came up with the 6-3-3-4 system of education, which would have been the best system of education for the Nation, but, as usual, we make policies, but never put the structures in place to affect them.
All of this, no doubt, necessitated the hue and cry over the return of schools to missions. Taking over the schools is not the problem, but how does the state government intend to measure up in running the system? The nation has uncountable public schools out of which less than two percent is advocating to be returned to their former owners.
The problem is not the imbalance, but about the readiness of some of the states in the nation to foot the bill? Few other states have since returned schools to their owners. A point of reference is Enugu State were the owners of the schools see to the day-to-day running of the schools, in terms of structure, organization, discipline and other things, while the government pays the teachers’ salaries.
The state government of every state should be able to assist in making sure that materials needed by these schools are provided. It should not just look the other way and say to your tent o missions.