Ask any middle class Nigerian, the first answer they give when discussing child care cost is school fees. School fees are skyrocketing from early childhood care, primary school to secondary school. Public primary school education is free in most states where parents pay little or nothing. Although entry age into public primary school is 6 years, parents are left to themselves before that age to make preparations for early childhood care.

That the Nigerian public education school system is broken is no news. There are many challenges: not enough schools to go round, overcrowded classrooms, low supply of school inputs such as textbooks, libraries, and laboratories. All of these then translate into low quality education. What is gaining traction is that majority of parents who want good quality education turn to the private sector albeit at a very high cost. In Lagos state for example, there are more private schools than public schools. A World Bank researchputs Lagos state as the largest private school market in the world. In a particular local government area, the private sector is the leading provider of education in both primary and secondary schools. The research further states that a whopping 91 percent of pre-primary, primary and secondary schools were provided by the private sector with most of them being operated as private businesses. This is the same scenario in most states in Nigeria.

Private schools in themselves are not bad as they exist all over the world. However, they must not become the first choice of quality schooling for the average parent. The problem is that, as businesses, private schools are at liberty to set school fees and any other fees associated with schooling. How do parents finance this high cost of education? What is the impact of this trend on socioeconomic development in terms of equality where the rich go to quality private schools while the poor are left with the choice of going to so called low fee private schools where the quality is questionable.

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