Children’s day, which is celebrated in Nigeria on May 27 every year, is dedicated to celebrating children all over the world, and for adults to remember their childhood experience. The excitement of the day is palpable as it is a special day to recognize, honour, celebrate and appreciate our children.

Our focus feature this edition is how the Nigerian child can be best prepared via proper education and why the government needs to see that adequate investment in education at every level will inevitably make us a better nation.

In this tete-a-tete with COUNTDOWN’s host of Instant Reading Column, Hadassah Omoniyepe, Mrs. Jan Okpanachi, a thoroughbred School Administrator in the FCT and an educator by choice and calling, shares with us, her experience, views and expectations for the Nigerian child.

Mrs. Jan Okpanachi is the founder of International Community School (ICS) & Christian Community School (CCS), both in Abuja.  

Can we meet you ma, your sojourn in the education sector, contribution to improved education and vision for the future? We also wish to know the story behind how you became a School Administrator.

My name is Mrs. Jan Okpanachi, and, yes, it has indeed been a sojourn.  I am an educator by choice and by calling.  I derive pleasure from seeing children learn and grow to achieve their optimum potential.  

Actually, it was never my goal or desire to become an Administrator.  I prefer to be in the classroom, close to those I am teaching.  My first administrative job after many years of teaching in different types of schools was in the American International School here in Abuja.  Even then, it was not my aspiration, but others believed I was the best choice at the time and God confirmed to me that it was His leading.  What I discovered was that, although I loved the classroom, I could actually broaden my coast and help more children learn and achieve better by helping teachers teach effectively.

As we celebrate this year's Children's day, how would you describe the state of things, especially in the performance of children within the public Primary Schools? Would you say everything is okay?

I believe that the government would do well to give more attention and more funds to education.  It would be a great investment in the future of our country.  We know that in many States, Public Schools are lacking the resources to provide the right learning opportunities for our children.  I am talking about the lack of reasonably comfortable learning environment, shortage of books, computers, lab equipment, and even sports equipment.  Most discouraging is that many teachers are not motivated to give their best because of low pay (in some cases no pay for many months), and, therefore, most see teaching as nothing more than a stepping stone to a better paying employment. The end result of all this is that our children, no matter how intelligent they are – and indeed they actually are - may not have the opportunity to go far in life without having received a proper foundation in school.

Can we say the proliferation of Private Schools in Nigeria has contributed positively to the development of education in Nigeria and in what areas would you like to see improvements?

Whenever we have Inspectors coming to our schools, they almost inevitably admit that they see Private Schools as extremely valuable in filling the gaps that most Public Schools cannot fill.  In fact, competition between private schools for enrolment often leads to proprietors seeking to improve in every way to outdo each other.  

Sadly, however, there are many who open Private Schools with their major motive being to make money.  Also if such persons are not really concerned about education itself, they may invest funds more in window dressing their schools rather than providing quality education.  I’ve seen this happen many times.  But on the whole, Private Schools have been there to offer what most public schools cannot.

How would you describe the relevance of the current Curriculum being used in our Public Schools and the expectations to compete favourably with their peers in Private Schools?

The Nigerian Curriculum was originally based on the British Curriculum.  It is a good curriculum, but many of the textbooks used to teach it tend to be scanty in content.  In our case, we encourage teachers to go beyond the textbooks and research further into the topics featured to give students a more robust learning experience.

The ICS has been able to carve a niche for itself in the educational sector of the FCT over the years and waxing stronger. What in brief can you ascribe to or as the main reason for this feat?

 We actually have two Schools – the International Community School which runs an American Curriculum and the Christian Community School which makes use of the Nigerian Curriculum. Both Schools started small (ICS with 8 students, and CCS with about 20, I believe) and grew over time. Though we were small, God clearly told us that we should not worry about numbers, but about the quality of what we were giving.  His word to me was, “Make a school fit for kings and I will bring the people.”  He has done that and after 25 years ICS now has 600 students from over 30 countries of the world.  CCS, the baby of ICS, has about 235 students and is growing steadily every year.  We rarely advertise publicly, but our students have become our selling point and most of our families in both schools, come on the recommendation of other parents who are pleased with the progress of their children in our schools.  God has been gracious to us and on our part we are committed to: giving individual attention to students, providing the best qualified and godly teachers, making the learning environment conducive, providing adequate resources and focusing on character development as well as academic achievement.  For all this we give God glory.  Participating in both local and international accreditation has also helped us pursue continuous improvement and excellence in every area to ensure that we keep our standards high.

What gives you the greatest form of fulfillment as an operator of Schools who works with children and parents alike over the decades?

I already mentioned how I love to see children grow and develop to their highest potential.  But I also love seeing teachers and other staff grow and become experts in their fields.  We make training of all our staff a priority so that no teacher will leave on the same level he/she came to us.  I have seen teachers not only do well in the classrooms, but also becoming excellent trainers of teachers themselves.  Several of our teachers have left us after a few years with us to open their own schools based on what they have gained in ICS, and I am very proud of them.  The more good schools that are opened, the more children will be helped, and the happier I am for this.

If you were to be given a listening ear by the new administration, what would you want them to do in order to take education at the primary level to the next level?

I believe I have addressed this in your second question.  Any country that does not give priority to education can never move forward.  Investing in education at every level will inevitably make us a better nation.  Let us give decent salaries so that teachers will see teaching as a noble profession – which it truly is. Let us invest in our educational facilities, and make learning effective by training our teachers to use the best innovative teaching strategies.  Let us provide learning materials, and remember that children are the future of Nigeria.  What better way to build this nation than to invest in our children?  

The alarming rate of out-of-school children is worrisome, especially in northern Nigeria. Obviously, the government isn't doing enough to abate the situation. Do you think the church can play a role to remedy the malady? Or if you say they have been doing so, are they doing enough?

I’ve had the experience of seeing a child about 8 years old who had never been in school, when given the chance, he quickly caught up with his peers and surpassed them.  This made me realize how much we are losing in allowing children to roam the streets, hawking and sometimes stealing to survive when they could become great contributors to society if they were properly educated.  The government should make School attendance through Secondary School mandatory and this should be enforced.  In some areas where school-age children are on the streets in order to earn a few kobo, school attendance could be more attractive if a nutritious meal could be provided for them in school. There is a school in Kuje where the owners seek to find sponsors for their students who would otherwise be on the streets because their parents cannot afford to pay school fees.  Such movements are commendable and maybe the church can do more of this.  

Another contributor to this problem in the North is the prevailing aversion toward Western Education by many parents.  This is why there are 15-20 million children roaming the streets in the North.  The solution to this, unfortunately, is not in the hands of the Church as it cannot impose anything on Northern parents.  The people who can do this are our political leaders. The Federal Government under President Ebele Jonathan built many nomadic schools in many rural areas to encourage the education of Fulani children, but sadly after he left power in 2015, that programme has been abandoned. 

The most effective way to change this is to criminalize the practice of keeping children out of school.  At least one Governor in the North has made a commendable effort to take away beggars from the streets in his state and to massively increase the registration of children in the schools. If only more Northern governors would do the same! 

By:Hadassah Omoniyepe