In a city with rising education costs, an Abuja school is challenging the status quo with an affordable fee structure that charges a meagre N100 tuition fee per day, OWEDE AGBAJILEKE reports.

Favour, a 12-year-old girl from Kuje, a suburb of Abuja, was destined for child marriage due to poverty and lack of education. Her widowed mother, Mrs Linus, struggled to provide for her daily needs.

However, in 2019, Favour enrolled at KNOSK N100 a-day Charity School, escaping child marriage and discovering her mathematics talent. She won the best junior secondary two student award in 2021 and now aspires to become an airforce pilot.

In a city where exorbitant school fees have become the norm, KNOSK School, in Kuje, Abuja, is changing the status quo with a revolutionary approach to education pricing.

With about 35 kilometres from the nation’s capital, KNOSK’s affordable education initiative has transformed Favour’s life and 169 others. Her story highlighted the stark reality of child marriage in West and Central Africa, where about 60 million girls are affected.

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Nigeria ranks third globally, with 44 per cent of girls married before 18, totalling 24 million child brides.

The youngster’s inspiring journey highlighted another pressing concern: Nigeria’s staggering number of out-of-school children. According to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO), a staggering 20 million children are out-of-school, underscoring the urgent need for interventions.

With N100-a-day school fees, students receive free books, uniforms, sportswear, daily lunch, and sanitary kits monthly for the girls. Approved by the Federal Ministry of Education and registered as KNOSK Charity Education Initiative, the secondary school commenced operations in September 2019 with 30 students and has increased to 170, providing skills-based education to indigent children. Its pioneer students are set to write the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) this year.

Findings showed that the school’s innovative funding model allows parents to pay a token of N100 daily. The Guardian investigation also revealed that the school relies on support from corporate organisations, donor agencies, philanthropists and individual sponsors to augment the cost of school fees, teaching and non-teaching staff, educational materials, foodstuff, and sanitary pads, among others.

A multitude of organisations and individuals are supporting this initiative, including Julius Berger, which donated state-of-the-art facilities, Embassy of Ireland, which provided full scholarships to deserving girls; MacArthur Foundation, which contributed $38,000 funding support for 20 students, covered 25 teachers’ salaries for a year, and laboratory equipment, as well as the Chief Executive Officer of Transcorp Hotels, Dupe Olusola, who recently sponsored 15 students to commemorate her 50th birthday, through her ‘50 by 50’ initiative.

It has also received grants from Wally Foreman Foundation in Australia, Ford Foundation, the United States Embassy and numerous other benefactors. The school is also off the national grid as an independent power producer, Azure Power Global Limited, last year, donated a 21 kilowatts inverter with 24 solar panels, ensuring that the high cost of energy is taken off its chest.

During a tour of the school, The Guardian explored the facility’s state-of-the-art amenities, including its science lab, language studio, library, information and communications Technology (ICT) centre, classrooms, workstations, and mini farm.

The school’s co-founder, Kingsley Bangwell, said the institution was designed for children from low-income families earning below the minimum wage.To prevent exploitation and ensure that only deserving students benefit, the Bangwell said the school conducts home visits to verify the financial status of prospective students’ families, followed by a competitive entrance examination.

“We established the KNOSK N100 a-day school because we wanted to help in solving one of Nigeria’s prolonged problems, which is that millions of children are not going to school primarily because of poverty.

“What we do is that we look for those we call ‘Education Angels.’ They are people we present these children to, their history, and ask them to sponsor or co-sponsor them.”

He disclosed that the worsening economic situation and the galloping inflation are taking its toll on parents, as more than 60 per cent cannot afford the N100 daily school fees.

Unlike typical private institutions where students are sent home for non-payment of fees or stopped from writing examinations, Bangwell said the school does not deny students access to education due to unpaid fees, promoting inclusivity and continuity.

He said: “We have people that are owing for four years. At that level, you can no longer say they owe. You just write it off. We don’t stop children from coming to school because their parents didn’t pay N100 a-day.

“And our reason is true. Our offer is that if a child passes our exam, we will offer the student six years’ education, whether or not the parent pays N100 a day, because if we send them away, then what’s the difference between us and others and how are we addressing the issue of out-of-school children?”

Furthermore, Bangwell highlighted the school’s gender ratio of 3:2, where girls comprise 60 per cent and boys 40 per cent, describing as alarming, out-of-school data, which revealed that 55 per cent of girls drop out of school, highlighting the urgent need to address this disparity.

Head of Learning Design, Irene Bangwell, disclosed that teachers’ salaries are covered by sponsorship funds and called for increased partnership support to sustain their compensation while expressing gratitude to some private schools that have also contributed to the school’s teacher support.

“Right now, there is no child represented in the school that does not come from a low-income family because all children are vetted from home,” she stated.

According to Bagwell, KNOSK School uses the Nigerian curriculum but infused its action learning curriculum, which emphasises computer-based, problem-solving and creativity in learning and application, adding that termly hackathons are organised to test for real-life application of knowledge learnt in the classroom.

“We also have a partnership support with the U.S. Embassy. They just recently gave us a grant that will allow us to provide English Language education to children from low-income families in Kuje. We are pulling 35 children from neighbouring schools to come here for an after-school programme that will run for two years,” she said.

She denounced the disturbing practice where parents send their underage children to work as domestic maids after school, highlighting the severe consequences this has on their physical, emotional, and psychological well-being.

She argued that this alarming phenomenon not only robs children of their fundamental right to education and childhood but also exposes them to physical abuse and exploitation, emotional trauma and psychological distress, limited access to education and personal development, increased vulnerability to human trafficking, modern slavery as well as long-term damage to their social and economic prospects.

She emphasised the urgent need for strengthened child protection laws and enforcement, increased awareness campaigns to educate parents and communities, support systems for vulnerable families to reduce poverty-driven exploitation and empowerment programmes for rescued children to rebuild their lives.

Some of the beneficiaries who spoke to The Guardian, including pioneer student, Solver Majorie (SS3) and Solver Fareedat (SS2) said that but for their sponsors, they would have dropped out of school.

Sponsored by the Embassy of Ireland, Fareedat hopes to become an aeronautical engineer and envisions a future where she contributes to groundbreaking innovations in aviation, transforming the skies and beyond.

Majorie is sponsored by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Reliance HMO, Dr Femi Kuti, adding that he would be among the first set of students from the institution to write the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE).

Meanwhile, stakeholders have advocated for more of such institutions to be established in rural areas. A public affairs analyst, Ifeanyi Nwoko, urged well-meaning Nigerians to support such an initiative, even as he called for an upward review of education tax to 3.5 per cent to channel the proceeds to boost education funding.

Also, the Initiator of the Creative Change Centre, Omole Ibukun, said KNOSK School is a beacon of hope in a country struggling with poverty and escalating school fees.

According to him, the school’s success highlighted the need for drastic action to address the crisis in the sector, particularly the growing number of out-of-school children.

To tackle this, Ibukun underscored the need for the government to prioritise funding public education, making it free and accessible to all. He noted that this would address poverty and provide opportunities for young people to pursue education over harmful activities like internet fraud.

“The success of this school is making a living argument for our case for a free public education by the government. The almost-free nature of this school has made it possible for the school to boost enrollment. In the face of escalating school fees amidst abject poverty, any sensible government will declare a state of emergency in the education sector by making public education free.”