Lagos- A non-governmental organisation (NGO), Developing Effective Private Education in Nigeria (DEEPEN), on Sunday said that head teachers of some private schools displayed limited academic leadership skills, to enhance the performance of their teachers.
Dr Gboyega Ilusanya, Team Leader of the NGO, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in an interview in Lagos on Sunday.
NAN reports that DEEPEN is a five-year project being jointly funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the British Department For International Development (DFID), for the support of private education in Nigeria.
Ilusanya alleged that such head teachers’ supervision of classroom teachers and general observations were usually inadequate .
Also, most private schools’ management’s interpersonal relationships with their teachers were always very poor, he said.
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‘’As such, there is the need for a leadership and capacity building initiative for proprietors and administrators of privately-owned schools.
‘’Those in leadership must have knowledge of the global practices and norms of schools which they must replicate in their schools, so that they will be able to compete favourably with their counterparts, locally and internationally.
‘’There is so much talk about the high rate of failure being recorded at the Senior Secondary external examination, the solution has to start from the basic classes,’’ he said.
Ilusanya said that school proprietors should focus more on the teaching and learning outcomes of the children, rather than the profit that would accrue to them from such ventures.
He said that they should lay emphasis on teaching methodology and learning practices in the private schools because they accounted for about 70 per cent of the educational sector.
‘’If 70 per cent of the educational sector in Lagos is faulty, then the economy of Lagos is doomed and the nation will be affected,’’ he said.
Ilusanya said that DEEPEN, in partnership with the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), would organise a three-day retreat for proprietors of private schools later in the month.
During the retreat, we will train head teachers and school proprietors on effective school administration, Ilusanya said.
He said it would also entail how proprietors could attract and retain their staff and how they could further lift the standard of education to greater heights.
Ilusanya said that the organisation was also making efforts to collaborate with the government on how to ensure schools enforce regulations guiding their proper administration. (NAN)
