 Welcome back. We're glad to know that you're still there and watching the breakfast on plus TV Africa right now We're going to be looking at what is happening in the school system and see if there are other solutions We are in the country where the school system is epileptic the infrastructure is decaying and the standard is going down. Well We're thanking God that at least there is the private sector that will tick off the burden a little bit from the government But is there something else that we can still do about the educational system? So we are here to discuss with The CEO chief executive officer of global international secondary school and college in the person of Madam Paula G. Osime. Welcome to the program. Thank you so much Okay, one of the solutions that people feel that should be introduced in Nigeria if it is not there already is Homeschooling as it stands now. Is that something obtainable in Nigeria? Is it having a legal backing that you can homeschool your child? I don't think he has a legal backing Because every child is supposed to be in school in the traditional setting of schools But remember what happened during covert because everybody go homeschooled So coverage changed a lot of stuff it changed a lot of things and he opened our eyes to let us know that There are alternatives to traditional education and in other countries. There's homeschooling and if they're doing very well So when you do not have the infrastructure and you don't have the Facilities to be able to educate all your students Then you have to look at alternatives and that's what Nigeria is not doing effectively So it's unfortunate that we have over 20 million out of school when we can look at alternatives To you know to ensure that they have an education. It's very important Let's first of all start by enumerating some of the things that Have brought the educational system in Nigeria down to its knees remove the private sector for instance and then give us a The reason we are where we are educationally, I think it's unfortunate we are where we are We shouldn't be where we are There's a lot of funding that goes into education through you back particularly There's a lot of money that is available for education and the SDG is very clear that you know in terms of education is very important A nation that does not educate its citizens is a nation that is going to fail anyway So the challenge is that we do not have enough schools So when you look at the kind of money that has been pumped into education that you ask yourself How come we don't build more schools? How come the governors do not have on their manifesto when to go for You know, they say all of those things but when it comes to reality, we do not see the schools So you go to areas very rural areas no schools at all So the kids are there they're out of school. They're on the roads and then you set yourself This is the human capital of Nigeria 30 million out of school if they were in school and they were skilled then Nigeria is better off for it How come government cannot connect the dots to say if I do not Educate my citizens then I am doing myself an injustice because at the end of the day They're going to build the economy of Nigeria. They're going to improve the GDP if they're skilled Nigeria has so many resources and our unemployment is 35 percent Poverty rates is 40 percent So we need to think and say the most important thing that we need to do for our children is to ensure They're educated. We do not have a choice. Why are people all living the shores, you know People are living Nigeria and they're going to have other nations. Do you understand? So well, there's such a brain dream, but it's like government doesn't care and they're not even saying what can we do about it So sad, you know, I feel very pained that so many kids are out there who can be doing some brilliant kids Brilliant kids. Well, you are in this sector and you are privy to all that you are privy to and Some of which you are letting us in on right now But you also interface with government officials who are in charge of policies and all of that. Am I correct? Yes Have you done anything with regards to Suggesting the that homeschooling be legalized seeing that it could bridge this gap Now that you've made up to realize that it's not legal yet the country. Have you suggested that it be legalized? One of the things we're doing we have a foundation called text foundation Which actually was set up by the vice president. So I'm part of it I'm one of the trustees and one of the things that we're doing in the north east and the northwest of Nigeria a Thousand students were using the radio program to actually educate them So most of them can actually be a home as well So in effect, the thing about Nigeria is that when you want to legalize something you go through a lot You have to go to the Senate You have to pass a bill because as far as the Nigerian education policy is concerned Students have to be in school. In fact, if you are not in school, they can arrest your parent That's what the law says so until the government and what we're saying to government is with technology now You can anybody can be educated anywhere in the world So you can be at home and a teacher can be teaching you in fact My teachers can be teaching from my classroom and teachers students all over so the critical thing that government needs to understand How am I going to give access to the millions? We have 60 percent of 200 million that are young people in Nigeria How do I give access? What are the options? Then they should speak to private sector. We're we're engaging government all the time We talk to government all the time. We provide the solutions. We say to government. Why don't you have broadband in schools? Why don't we get a corporate organizations to give devices? Why don't we partner with MTN to give low internet, you know, not cost-effective or even zero internet So if we can say to ourselves the most important thing is that can we get our students educated actually and even the ones in school When you even look at the ones in school, they're not even getting the education because literacy and humance is very very low in Nigeria So we have to really as a group not just what you're doing putting out there very important But everybody has to come together corporates because at the end of the day the corporates are the ones going to hire this young people And when they hire them they complain all the time that they are not fit for purpose that they cannot use them Some of them cannot write letters and they have left university Do you understand? They have gone through four years of university half of the time universities on strike anyway So what on earth are we doing? So you've made the suggestions with the government. What are the responses and how do you read their Responses or lack of response. Is it a lack of political will? Is it corruption? How do you assess their response or lack of it? I think if you remember that the Minister of Education himself had mentioned the current one that one of the regrets is that he didn't do anything about out of school eight years eight years so You know I don't you see on unless you have the the point is if you're in power and you're a minister You are the one that can do something we can suggest to you, but we cannot force your hand Do you understand? You know we had I've had occasions to meet with many many government officials and we are profiled solutions from private sector And we are saying even private sector. Nobody is supporting us, but we are doing our best to educate the Nigerian child But we do not have the capacity You know to take every student who wants to come if I had the capacity and government can say I will give you Scholarship I will take all of the out of school into my school. I will educate them in my school But I'm going to have to pay teachers to do that So basically government has to look at it and say if Nigeria is going to move forward because it's like we have a time a bomb that is ticking and we are not even aware and These kids if you do not use them they become liabilities twenty million can either be the best and be a gold Mine for Nigeria or it can be a serious liability It can these are people that Bukoharam and all of these people are recruited So why are we not connecting the dots to say we need to educate the skits We need to educate the girl child We need to ensure every child has skills and they have a job reduce unemployment and make sure everybody's productive And then we have a good society. It's so easy. It's so simple that you wonder why we're not paying attention to it So it worries me all the time and I really I would say political will is lacking in most cases Some governors are doing excellently. Well, I know Lagos state is trying very hard The commissioner is very forward-looking and she's doing her best and some other states But we need to do more from federal as well. The policies need to change for example our curriculum now We're talking about 21st century. We're talking about AI. We're talking about robotics We're talking about coding any job you're going to take if you don't have text those you're in trouble Yet we have not Reviewed our curriculum to include all the skills in it. So how are we saying we're educating for 21st century? How we think we're educating for jobs that are not even we cannot even imagine Why are we being left behind when everybody's moving forward? It's very frustrating You know, so those are the things that we just have to look at alternative technology has given us an opportunity To do so much now to educate the 20 million in the in with their parents only challenge Sometimes when I look at homeschooling is When there's at home who is going to sort of teach them? He has to be their parents So government has to have a plan if they're going to use homeschooling because homeschooling is important It's it makes a world of difference when our students during COVID were at home They did they did well their parents were right beside them. There was no destruction. They had to focus on their work So I know that if the parent does but most parents go to work But if you're not even going to work, can you be trained by government to actually teach your child? Can we have retired? teachers or principals to be involved in the communities to gather these kids together Numeracy and literacy early education. Let them have that foundation. Can we do that? It's so easy to do so you just wonder why These things are not in place. You know, that's that's that's just the issue You are in the system yesterday, which was techno file to stay on the breakfast I had a web designer who's also into coding and I did ask this question about the curriculum and how You know inclusivity is of AI and he was going to position to give that answer So I'm happy you are here But one of the things he said is that Most school owners are in it for profit and may not have included some things. So you are here. Tell me how What is the curriculum? Is there a unified for the private and the public schools? And if it is not what do you have in your curriculum in the private sector? I do about four curriculums. I Do the British I do the American I do the Nigerian and I think what was the first one again? No three curriculums Nigerian British Canadian and Yeah, Nigerian British Canadian and American I do four curriculums and the reason why I do four curriculums is that a lot of my students Go abroad and I don't want them to be shocked. For example in yack. There's no calculus in yack There's no advanced function in yack if you want to be an engineer you must know this thing So unfortunately a lot of the students will go to Canada. They'll get there High school students have already done this and they've done well So your parent goes and they spend such five thousand dollars the student feels sends back to Nigeria So our curriculum is not looking at the standard world standard curriculum What we should be focusing on is that what is the world talking about in terms of? Educating the child not just the Nigerian child because the world is flat So students should be able to go anywhere and excel and compete So that's why we're advocating that every curriculum day right now. They have not included what we do in global is as extracurricular Because the extracurricular we do coding we call Parties people who are trained as to come and train them but because it's extracurricular and it's not tested You know students just do it for the sake of doing it I'm somebody was just telling me a story the other day of the 16 year old Who during the holiday just finish yack went to the US did the course for three or four months in Hacking or some app development came back and when they wanted to hire her 16 years old not gone to university She asked for 66 50,000 Naira. So the her boss had to say to her that's too high We know you are worth it because you know your stuff. We will give you 350,000 Naira She has not gone to university when my university graduates are walking around the streets They cannot even get a job and this girl just did a six-month course So there are courses that will breach even post-secondary. What we are saying to government is vocational skills Nigeria and the job that they've just finished now It'll be about 1.9 million every single year that applies for jam out of that we can already take 600,000 Places so what happens to the 1.3 million that can don't have places? Why can't we have this post-secondary vocational skills and innovation skills so they can do short courses pending the time They go to university Why don't we make sure that we push that so that everybody is educated because at the end of the day We're going to grow the economy of Nigeria when we resolve the solutions the problems of Nigeria has Everybody's going to be happy the private sector. We make money government will know that we are moving forward So it's something that we have to pay attention to and that's what all nations are doing Okay, I'd like you to revisit what you have said before some of the challenges that might be faced if we Adopt homeschooling. What are these things that need to be addressed before we can succeed in it? Homeschooling you know like I said homeschooling is important in the sense that Like during the insurgency for example rather than the students to just not have any education Emergency times like that or areas where there are no schools, but like I said Government has to be deliberate about it because when they say that we're deliberate and intentional Which means we must train the parents in order to be able to you know Teach the kids because there's no point putting them in the home when the parent doesn't understand maths or doesn't know How to teach them so what's the point or we can say can we do a community program? whereby we can gather all those kids in the community center and then we can get teachers like you back trained a lot of teachers and we Can get some teachers to go there and teach them the radio program. We're doing now it is it's in collaboration with Besta, which is the program for World Bank and Teachers are there that are training them all over the place So there's nothing that cannot be done But whoever is training and teaching this Students also must be trained and must be able to teach and must have some kind of at least if they cannot have a Qualification we must know that this parents can actually teach they speak English. They write English, you know That's that's one of the the only drawback is that that's the drawback I see that whoever is at home with them might not be able to do it So we might have to supplement and get maybe other trainers to go into the homes Yeah, well time will not allow us to push this any further, but you know talking about the fact that our curriculum is still not Cannot compete with international standard is a major concern, isn't it? And that begins to raise the questions about those in charge of the education in the country Especially at the federal level. What would you say as we as we wrap this up in regards to that? No, the the reason why we have a high unemployment right now and we have high poverty rates It's the fact that we're not killing our students So the point is that government has to look at that Do you want to reduce unemployment? If you want to reduce unemployment include the skills that the private sector wants if Private sector wants to employ and they say I want you to be able to do fintech and all of that and you don't have the skills Then they will not employ you. So go to the private sector and say what are the skills you need? Then let us now connect to the private sector universities talk to private sector now review our curriculum not just at the K-12 not just as the secondary school level up to university Let's review our curriculum in line with what private sector wants a private sector can hire them That's what I'll say to government. So that must be there must be a connection from that point of view Okay, we would like to thank you for coming on the program. This is a apology of CME CEO global international secondary school and college Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Thank you We do hope that the relevant people are listening to this and they're watching us now Solutions have to come if we want our nation to grow because a nation that does not Educated citizens is bound to fail according to how This is a similar put it It's still the breakfast on plus TV Africa and we'll take a very short break now And we'll be joined by the sports person that will be taking us around the world as well. Stay with us