NAPPS urges establishment of education bank

The deputy chairman, National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), Yomi Otubela, has restated the call for establishment of education bank that will provide loans to private schools at single digit interest rate.

Fielding questions from journalists at a roundtable in Lagos recently, Otubela reminded that education comes at a high cost and what makes it expensive are other items put together to render qualitative education.

Currently, he disclosed that banks are giving loans to private schools on 25 to 30 per cent interest rate.

“No bank is giving at anything less than double digit interest rate. Bank of Industry (BOI) is attending to Agro-allied companies. We are deliberately canvassing educational bank to look at the interest rate and will also push for grants from donors where we can provide qualitative education at affordable price.’ He said.

With the theme: “Defining developmental policies for the advancement of the private education sub-sector in collaboration with the organised private sector” the NAPPS chief added that there is need for private schools to synergise with the corporate world.

“From a creative outlook, the mind aching problems that handicap education in Nigeria are the lack of synergic inclusion of strategic organisations across industrial sectors and less government investment in the Nigerian education sector. Part of which is the neglected attention paid to the private education subsector and the need for possible and sustainable solutions like passing appropriate bills to protect the subsector.”

This diverse synergy, he observed would usher in school growth considering the extent to which private schools have different capacities for change and development.

He added that it is important to key into the corporate social responsibility of the organisations to ensure that private schools and the private sector look into the children on the streets that are not in school at the moment.

‘The numbers are increasing and we have to do something. Government has tried but their attempts have not yielded much result.’

Else we’ll leave our teeming population uneducated and it will not be good for our national development,” Otubela added.

NAPPS president in the south west, Stephen Abitogun said the time has come for synergic coordination towards evolving a more competitive educational system in the country.