The National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) last Friday 12th October, 2012 in Port Harcourt celebrated their efforts towards the enhancement of educational development in the state.
The event for this year which had started two days earlier with both lectures and speeches regarding the important roles played by the private schools in the state and with visits by the association members to charity homes to donate assorted materials culminated with the 12th day of October being the finale as the mMnistry of Education in the country has preserved this day as a special day for recognizing the contributions of the private schools towards educational development in the country.
For the occasion, all proprietors of privately owned schools from different parts of the state converged at the multi-purpose hall of the Peoples Club along Rumuokwuta-Rumuola road decked in their T-Shirts upon black skirts for women proprietresses while the men wore black trousers.
Speaking to journalists after the occasion Dr. Peter Harrison President General of the Association noted that considering the desperate emphasis on certificates nowadays that has engendered a corresponding desperation towards acquiring them that those of them in the private schools who prize their institutions so high must be wary of the students they churn out each year. That it why he said, “The private schools are the hope of education in Nigeria.”
Dr. Peter Harrison emphasised that his belief in private schools stems from the fact that almost all policy makers in the country have the same belief as he has and that is why they all have their children quietly tucked away somewhere in one private school or the other. When asked his notion on public schools as possible threat to their privately owned ones he said.
“The public schools are there and some of them are quite good but you see, there’s always something special about private schools and that is, we are conscious of the quality and type of education we offer, we can’t afford to go below this standard. Infact, government should continue to have implicit confidence in private schools.
“On this note, he continued, “I advice my NAPPS members to make sure that they keep the flag flying, by working in line with government expectations. As a matter of fact while I was addressing the congress I reminded them that premium must be kept in employing quality teachers that can be able to sustain what we have achieved so far.”
Dr. Harrison, who promised that next year’s celebration will even take a much more higher scale pleaded with government that standards should be put in place to checkmate the activities of quacks amongst them saying that a one-bedroom flat nowadays can easily turn into a school, saying that such a practice should be discouraged by government. ###
Pascal Agbadah
