Privatisation and Commercialisation of Education

The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has called on the federal government to consider increasing budgetary allocation to the education sector to 20 per cent.

The call was one of the critical outcomes of the one-day workshop on 'Privatisation and Commercialisation of Education', organised by  Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) in collaboration with the Education International (EI) and #FriedrichEbertStiftung Nigeria, which took place in Port Harcourt.

Participants (teachers) at the workshop, drawn from nine states of South-south and Southeast Nigeria, also decried the ongoing privatisation and commercialisation of education in the country, emphasising that it was not healthy for the nation's educational sector.

The teachers further urged governments at all levels to make better investments in education to make public schools lucrative, regretting that the proliferation of private schools may have led to the loss of some educational values.

In the words of the National President of NUT, Audu Amba, "As we embark on this campaign, we are not unaware of the fact that the country's National Policy on Education provides for participation of private education providers to complement efforts of government, but what has become worrisome and unacceptable is the ugly trend where education is turned into a commodity for sale with the motive of making profit, coupled with the glaring failure of public authorities to regulate and monitor the activities of non-state actors to protect the right to education of our children through the provision of adequate funding and investment in quality public education".

The African Director of Education International, African Regional Office, Ghana, Dr Dennis Sinyolo, and the Programme Manager of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Nigeria, Remi Ihejirika, were also at the event.

In what appeared like a protest, the teachers displayed placards with different inscriptions: 'Don't Mortgage the Future of our Children', 'Say no to Privatisation and Commercialisation of Education,' 'Education is not a Tradable Commodity, Shun Commercialisation of Education,' 'Education is a Common Good, Support Quality Public Education for All," and others.