Lovely concept. I personally believe that most segments of society should be privatized while the government should be left to function as regulators.
Also, community participation and ownership is one of the best ways to enhance qualitative development .
Excellent concept!! Great thinking.
But the practicalities of implementing such a concept would be hampered by funding especially with regard to teachers salaries.

A better way to run it would be a Public Private Partnership based on the stated model such that the Government is the Public Partner and the Community is the Private partner. The teachers would continue to get their salaries and allowances from the Government while the Private parties would focus their energies on providing better learning experiences for the students.

Funding would be a huge problem even when teachers salaries have been taken out except a business model is developed that would make the school profitable.
My opinion is that every school can have a business separate from the school such that the profits from the business would be utilised to make up for any shortage in funding. Such a business would leverage on the schools infrastructure to make the business more attractive!! Running an event centre on the schools premises is a very basic example.

what is the essence of government if every sector becomes privatalised? Still wondering

Blackteeth:
if shares are given to poor people can they raise the needed massive capital to provide those learning facilities and other expenses involved to make the schools up to standard?

Learning facilities don't have to be expensive to be effective. Second-hand textbooks are as effective as new textbooks, but cheaper. A educational DVD shown on a cheap TV is as effective as an excursion or lab visit, but much cheaper. A class with 50 well-behaved students per class is as effective as a class with 20 disruptive students per class, but cheaper. There are many ways to keep education affordable for poorer students, if you really want to.

Nnamsco4real:
what is the essence of government if every sector becomes privatalised? Still wondering

Maintaining law and order:
- A police force that is effective and not corrupt.
- A judicial system that tries cases quickly and thoroughly so that people don't stay
in jail for up to 7 years awaiting trial as happens in Nigeria.
- Creating fair laws that encourage enterprising people to move society forward.

manny4life: Fairfax City has 20 school including elementary, middle and high schools, the principals of that schools are CEO while Parents/Teachers are Boards. In Fairfax City, you have about 500,000 between ages 18+ (aged required by law to hold a not-for profit share), so we have 500,000 shares evenly distributed amongst these citizens. So what you're suggesting is though these schools are "for-profit", shares cannot be purchase but transferred?

People should be able to sell their shares if they want to, but the initial distribution will be voluntary.  For this example, Fairfax city can be divided into 20 zones based on proximity to the public schools. Each zone will have 25,000 adults only, and they'll each get one share to the school in that zone.

manny4life:
Having everyone being a part of a school system means too much hands in one basket. Rather than that improving the system, it will cause more chaos than good. Using a Limited  Liability Company, these people are bound to votes so how does this address the conflicts of interest?

Many well-run companies have thousands of shareholders, for example: Dangote Cement, GtBank, IBM. In a limited liability company, shareholders don't run the company directly. They run the company indirectly by voting for directors they trust. The directors control the company by appointing key officers like the CEO.  So giving one share to every adult member of a community won't lead to chaos. If most of the shareholders can't physically attend meetings, they can select proxies to attend shareholder meetings and vote on their behalf. Corporations are designed to scale.

@Uyi Iredia: Let me address your lengthy post!!

The cost of government in Nigeria is best achieved by removing redundant parastatals and officials and cutting down on habitual extravagant spending.

Good luck with that.  If you remove redundant parastatals today, what stops the national assembly from creating new redundant parastatals tomorrow?  If you cut some forms of extravagant spending today, what stops officials from finding new ways to waste money?  If you spend all your time fighting the government to achieve these goals, and you are not corrupt, then what's in it for you?  Where will you find the time to fight a never-ending battle you can't personally gain from?  Why should a govt official continue to serve the people selflessly and efficiently if he cannot reap the fruits of his labor (unless he's pocketing the savings, which is corruption)?  Those incentive issues are the reason why it often makes sense to privatize. It's about setting up a competitive system where individuals have very strong incentives to do what's best for society. In the private sector, the profit motive motivates you to reduce costs to maximize profits, but competition motivates you to maximize quality to keep your customers.

This shows that government will inevitably have to take the bull by the horns and tackle its inefficiency instead of lazily pushing the burden on the private sector.

Actually, I think it's lazy for us to sit on our bums waiting for the government to solve our problems. The government is not God and it's not Father Christmas. Whatever the government gives you or does for you will be paid for by your taxes, so it's not magic.  Even if you don't pay taxes because you're poor, whatever the govt does for you will prevent the govt from doing other things which may be more important.  Our government can't maintain law and order, can't prosecute crimes, can't do the basic duties of government, so should it waste time and money doing what we can do? Food is more important than education, because a dead man can't learn. Yet the government doesn't grow food for us. So why education?

I attend a private university that was built by contributions from the poor as well as the rich. A considerable amount did not benefit from their contribution. Your proposal here is idealistic especially when I consider that schools don't make quick profit.

That's Covenant University, right?  Yes, many poor people contributed to that school, but the fact is that they were not given shares in the school proportional to their contribution. As a result, they have no power to influence the policies of the school, because they have no shares!  They can't pressure the chancellor to reduce the school fees, because they don't have the right to attend shareholder meetings.

My proposal is to fix that in two ways: (1) granting shares to the masses (2) granting the same number of shares to the poor and the rich so the rich won't dominate the votes during shareholder meetings, so the poor can strongly influence the policies of the schools.

You guys mights want to check out this site. There's a lot of information in there regaring Private Education for the poor.
That site informs that 50% of the poorest Lagosians attend Private schools!

http://www.enterprisingschools.com/markets/africa/nigeria

proudly9ja:
I'm not an expert but quick question, how do you hope to fund the schools.

Primarily fees. They can also lease out their properties (land, classrooms) to churches, etc after school hours. For capital projects, they can obtain loans using their land and other property as collateral.  They can engage in related businesses too.

If the students are to pay fees, why would the school fund scholarships for poor children?

Schools will fund scholarships for poor children to raise their academic standard and give their poor shareholders an opportunity to send their children to school, too.  They will look for ways to reduce the cost of education so they can charge lower fees. Necessity is the mother of invention.

In addition, with all due respect to current principals in public schools, are you sure they can manage such a  business?

Some may be capable, but others won't be. In theory, if they are incapable, the directors of the school will sack them and recruit a capable replacement. if they don't, then the shareholders will vote them out. In practice, it may take some time for the shareholders to start exercising their power.

PapaBrowne:

You guys mights want to check out this site. There's a lot of information in there regadring Private Education for the poor.
That site informs that 50% of the poorest Lagosians attend Private schools!

http://www.enterprisingschools.com/markets/africa/nigeria

Wow, great link! It's interesting that the Lagos State government is trying to shut the schools down.

When Seun wrote this piece, must have been sipping on the same juice GEJ was crushing on when he ordered 1600 buses for 10billion people.

Seun,

your post is very confusing and contradictory.
I know you like to be known as a bonafide "capitalist" and despise all things associated with the government
but let's be serious here,

1. education is mandatory according to law. therefore there HAS to be public schools in existence to justify the law.
2. do you seriously think it's ok for students to be calling their principals "CEO"?  . you are confusing a school with a car company or something.
3. when "ALL adult residents" are involved in your scheme, it ceases to be a private venture but a PUBLIC one. did you consider this?
4. related to point 3, where will the shareholders' meeting take place? private board room or town hall? lol
5. what happens when there are issues/ disagreements and such among "share holders" (aka ALL adult residents ) who will arbitrate. will it be an elected official?
6. How will geographic residency be drawn out? who qualifies to be a resident? will we go by local government borders?
6. school fees. haha. you mention nothing about this in your post. who decides the school fees?


basically, your idea is headed in the right direction if only you acknowledge that what you are calling for really is better government.   ie government by the people, for the people and of the people.

This method was used to distribute soviet wealth to its people - what did you have today in those countries? are those that received the shares still part of the business?

Seun:

@Uyi Iredia: Let me address your lengthy post!!

Seun:
Good luck with that.  If you remove redundant parastatals today, what stops the national assembly from creating new redundant parastatals tomorrow?  If you cut some forms of extravagant spending today, what stops officials from finding new ways to waste money?  If you spend all your time fighting the government to achieve these goals, and you are not corrupt, then what's in it for you?  Where will you find the time to fight a never-ending battle you can't personally gain from?  Why should a govt official continue to serve the people selflessly and efficiently if he cannot reap the fruits of his labor (unless he's pocketing the savings, which is corruption)?  Those incentive issues are the reason why it often makes sense to privatize. It's about setting up a competitive system where individuals have very strong incentives to do what's best for society. In the private sector, the profit motive motivates you to reduce costs to maximize profits, but competition motivates you to maximize quality to keep your customers.

Your rhetorics here are needless since corrupt/inefficient government can be overhauled in principle, and in real life, given the fact that corruption in government has been effectively (but not absolutely) overcome in Western nations. Another classic case of corrupt governments (in Africa) being overhauled is exampled in Ghana. Furthermore, the profit motive is not a be all-end all solution to societal problems, profit motive equally engenders corruption in the private sector.

Seun:
Actually, I think it's lazy for us to sit on our bums waiting for the government to solve our problems. The government is not God and it's not Father Christmas. Whatever the government gives you or does for you will be paid for by your taxes, so it's not magic.  Even if you don't pay taxes because you're poor, whatever the govt does for you will prevent the govt from doing other things which may be more important.  Our government can't maintain law and order, can't prosecute crimes, can't do the basic duties of government, so should it waste time and money doing what we can do? Food is more important than education, because a dead man can't learn. Yet the government doesn't grow food for us. So why education?

Your reply here does not answer the imperative of government to tackle its inefficiency. A cursory glance at governments of various nations at various epochs shows that government can, in fact, successfully run business ventures especially when they are critical to a nation's survival e.g Saudi Aramco, Petronas (of Malaysia) and the U.S Postal union (which has operated since the 18th century). As a reply to your last statement, I repeat that the government successfully ran various agricultural schemes in order to use agriculture as a means of generating income, that should tell you that government can grow food if it so wishes.

Seun:
That's Covenant University, right?

 

Yes, I attend Covenant University.

Seun:
Yes, many poor people contributed to that school, but the fact is that they were not given shares in the school proportional to their contribution. As a result, they have no power to influence the policies of the school, because they have no shares!  They can't pressure the chancellor to reduce the school fees, because they don't have the right to attend shareholder meetings.

My proposal is to fix that in two ways: (1) granting shares to the masses (2) granting the same number of shares to the poor and the rich so the rich won't dominate the votes during shareholder meetings, so the poor can strongly influence the policies of the schools.

Good point. The reason I forwarded that example while overlooking the distinction was to show that contribution by the poor to an enterprise doesn't guarantee benefit. However, the mechanism for ensuring benefits is flawed to the extent that the ones who will have majority of the shares, and who can effectively influence policies are the rich; saying that equal shares be granted to the poor and rich and expecting effective capital be raised is contradictory because for capital to be raised contribution can't be quoted. It doesn't work that way realistically except with the intervention of government

Jenifa_:

Seun,

your post is very confusing and contradictory.
I know you like to be known as a bonafide "capitalist" and despise all things associated with the government
but let's be serious here,

1. education is mandatory according to law. therefore there HAS to be public schools in existence to justify the law.
2. do you seriously think it's ok for students to be calling their principals "CEO"?  . you are confusing a school with a car company or something.
3. when "ALL adult residents" are involved in your scheme, it ceases to be a private venture but a PUBLIC one. did you consider this?
4. related to point 3, where will the shareholders' meeting take place? private board room or town hall? lol
5. what happens when there are issues/ disagreements and such among "share holders" (aka ALL adult residents ) who will arbitrate. will it be an elected official?
6. How will geographic residency be drawn out? who qualifies to be a resident? will we go by local government borders?
6. school fees. haha. you mention nothing about this in your post. who decides the school fees?


basically, your idea is headed in the right direction if only you acknowledge that what you are calling for really is better government.   ie government by the people, for the people and of the people.

Seconded. Apt questions and a conclusion I partially agree with. A better government can equally provide quality education and at cheaper prices. lemme use this medium to point out that in from 17th and 19th century France was recognized as having the best military academies where greats like the Duke of Wellington trained. These military academies where established by the government of that time.

Seun:

We can make education more affordable by making it more efficient. It's not how much you spend, but how well you spend it.  Private schools owned by poor people have a very strong incentive to look for ways to make schools more affordable for the masses.  Do you know that all the top US universities like MIT, Harvard, and Princeton are private?  Yet they provide financial assistance to most of their students, because they want to increase the general academic standard of their schools. Scholarships for good students will become commonplace if this plan is implemented, because schools will want to be able to boast of having brilliant students. They'll come up with a way to provide multiple tiers of service, e.g. economy class for the poor and first class for the rich. Very poor students will study very hard in order to win academic scholarships, middle-class students will pay for basic education while the rich will pay through their noses for advanced services like excursions. CEOs will use their brains and find a way or get sacked.

@ bolded statement >>> This is not desirable at any level.

Seun:

Learning facilities don't have to be expensive to be effective. Second-hand textbooks are as effective as new textbooks, but cheaper. A educational DVD shown on a cheap TV is as effective as an excursion or lab visit, but much cheaper.

Agreed. The content is what matters and for the most part, they're the same.

Seun:
A class with 50 well-behaved students per class is as effective as a class with 20 disruptive students per class, but cheaper. There are many ways to keep education affordable for poorer students, if you really want to.

@ bolded >>> No it is not. In a class with disruptive students a topic cannot be taught regardless of the no. of disruptive students.

Seun:
Maintaining law and order:
- A police force that is effective and not corrupt.
- A judicial system that tries cases quickly and thoroughly so that people don't stay
  in jail for up to 7 years awaiting trial as happens in Nigeria.
- Creating fair laws that encourage enterprising people to move society forward.

Nonsense ! China is a Communist country which has an effective police force and judiciary system. The involvement of government in the educational sector does not preclude its necessity to be efficient. Put simply, my point here is that government can run businesses and still be effective in other capacities.

very good - keep following IMF dictates - by the time you have privatised all the schools in the country 90% of the country will be stark illiterates because they will not be able to afford the fees.

I believe a fully privatized educational system will be best, especially in a country like Nigeria in which the government is both poor and corrupt.

I am not subscribing for the Bolded.

You don’t want to completely "privatize" schools. What you want to do is to make it a non-profit partnership between private entities and the government.

What you want are Charter Schools

Charter schools are primary or secondary schools that receive public money (and like other schools, may also receive private donations) but are not subject to some of the rules, regulations, and statutes that apply to other public schools in exchange for some type of accountability for producing certain results, which are set forth in each school's charter.[1] Charter schools are opened and attended by choice.[2] While charter schools provide an alternative to other public schools, they are part of the public education system and are not allowed to charge tuition. Where enrollment in a charter school is oversubscribed, admission is frequently allocated by lottery-based admissions systems. However, the lottery is open to all students. [3] In a 2008 survey of charter schools, 59% of the schools reported that they had a waiting list, averaging 198 students.[4] Some charter schools provide a curriculum that specializes in a certain field — e.g., arts, mathematics, or vocational training. Others attempt to provide a better and more efficient general education than nearby public schools. Charter school students take state-mandated exams. [5]

Some charter schools are founded by teachers, parents, or activists who feel restricted by traditional public schools.[6] State-authorized charters (schools not chartered by local school districts) are often established by non-profit groups, universities, and some government entities.[7] Additionally, school districts sometimes permit corporations to manage chains of charter schools. The schools themselves are still non-profit, in the same way that public schools may be managed by a for-profit corporation. It does not change the status of the school. In the United States, though the percentage of students educated in charter schools varies by school district, only in the New Orleans Public Schools system are the majority of children educated within independent public charter schools.[8]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_school

Also, one of the quintessential things taxes are used for is to fund public schools. In the States, you can only attend public schools in the county/city (local government) you live in. Every local government gets some money from the state to fund public schools but majority of the funding comes from extra taxes paid by each local government resident by way of property taxes. Some areas pay over a $1000 per month in property taxes. The taxes are determined based on county-accessed value and the size of your house. The tax rate varies highly from county to county.

This means that people who invest more money in education (read: pay higher taxes) will typically have better schools because they can afford to pay the best teachers and buy the most modern equipment. As a result, people with school age kids shop around for the county/local government area to live in, which also means that demand for houses in that area will increase.

In the US, if you want your kids to go to a good school, you will have to buy or rent a house in a relatively expensive area so that you can send them to a public school or buy a house in a cheaper area and send them to a private school.

Nice plan but difficult to pull off in Nigeria. Here are potential bottlenecks:

1. I firmly believe the Nigerians masses won't be in support of this. Its going to be xtremely difficult explaining the benefits of such a system when the masses just want to do everything. They really don't want to be involved in anything more or less schools dat were once the standard but have been left to rot by corruption and negligence. The perfect question would be why can't your govt fix things?

2. The teachers unions, labors unions would be against for reasons in 1.

3. How do you keep track of each citizen? Do you just use mouth to give the shares of how exactly? I think there's going to be a really thin line between this and the government basically sayin you guys are on your own. Develop your schools yourself.

4. What if I don't want any shares? What if I want to sell my shares? Can they be sold? Thru what medium?

5. Residency issues. We are poor record keepers here. What happens if I change location etc.

I think the plans solid but instead of privatizing public schls, I suggest building schools such as these ground up using a community based approach. This way the fed and ststates only need to provide the legal backing and mayb some financial support in terms of grants and such.

PapaBrowne:
A better way to run it would be a Public Private Partnership based on the stated model such that the Government is the Public Partner and the Community is the Private partner. The teachers would continue to get their salaries and allowances from the Government while the Private parties would focus their energies on providing better learning experiences for the students.

Can you explain how this might work? It appears as if this approach won't allow private operators to sack lazy and uncooperative teachers so they can hire better teachers and improve the performance of the school.  If the benefits of privatization are lost (competition, exposure to market forces), it defeats the purpose.

Iolo:

Nice plan but difficult to pull off in Nigeria. Here are potential bottlenecks:

1. I firmly believe the Nigerians masses won't be in support of this. Its going to be xtremely difficult explaining the benefits of such a system when the masses just want to do everything. They really don't want to be involved in anything more or less schools dat were once the standard but have been left to rot by corruption and negligence. The perfect question would be why can't your govt fix things?

The best way to get people to support this is to privatize one public school in this manner. When it works, it will be easy to sell the idea to residents of other areas.

2. The teachers unions, labors unions would be against for reasons in 1.

The solution to that problem is easy. Sack them all and hire non-union teachers.

3. How do you keep track of each citizen? Do you just use mouth to give the shares of how exactly?

Door-to-door visits, passport photos and fingerprints.

I think there's going to be a really thin line between this and the government basically sayin you guys are on your own. Develop your schools yourself

If we convince the masses first, it will be more like "give us the schools and let us run them ourselves!"

5. Residency issues. We are poor record keepers here. What happens if I change location etc.

The share grants will be a one time thing for people living in the community at a particular time.  You'll continue to hold the shares unless you sell them. It doesn't matter much; most people won't change location.

4. What if I don't want any shares? What if I want to sell my shares? Can they be sold? Thru what medium?

I'm working on the answer to that question.

For a small private company like a school, it's actually ideal to have a small number of active shareholders who can actually influence the management of the school because they own a significant percentage of the shares.  For a large public university going private, you can just float the shares on the NSE, though the approach discussed on this thread won't work for them at all.

@ Seun >>> Are you discounting my proposal whereby there is increased PPP in the educational sector ?

@Seun

Privatizing the schools is not a bad idea, its just that in a developing country like Nigeria where most ppl live under a dollar a day, education would become the preserve of the Rich. Which is a bad idea. Education is like defence, its a fundamental block of society and not profitable in terms of cash, just in societal stability and growth.

Your arrangement is awkward, you give members of the community nontransferable or worthless (because it can't be accumulated or transferred) shares in their local schools, there is no basis for investment except moral inclinations. Its a business readied to failure. Poor communities wouldn't be expected to give what they don't have, and since education is capital intensive, the same old problems of poor funding, inefficiency, poor structures will remain.

For Africa's special situation, socialist policies are the best. The government is the most empowered entity, it should direct our development. The government is too large, thus inefficiency. This could be nullified with more delegation to other tiers of govt. Local governments' functions, powers and base should be redrawn.

Recently I'm doing a campaign on education, so I followed some links to this point. I have created a blog about my thoughts, but forum rules will not allow me to share it directly here. My focus is on increasing SSCE pass rate. I think we can follow a simple model to achieve success.
I will like to beg the owner of this forum to share my thoughts.

The idea of privatization may well be argued for some times but we may well consider my thought: Intensive teaching, Use what we have. I proposed a solution to check teachers and to help students follow. Things are changing we have to follow the trend. Thanks to people like Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State. Our children deserve right to better education even with the present system.

John Ayeko

BUMP.

@ Seun: Do you have a change of mind here ? as far as I can tell I haven't ?

sounds like a naive idea to me. if I were rich, I would simply buy off all the shares from the poor people.

Wallie:
Also, one of the quintessential things taxes are used for is to fund public schools. In the States, you can only attend public schools in the county/city (local government) you live in. Every local government gets some money from the state to fund public schools but majority of the funding comes from extra taxes paid by each local government resident by way of property taxes. Some areas pay over a $1000 per month in property taxes. The taxes are determined based on county-accessed value and the size of your house. The tax rate varies highly from county to county.

This means that people who invest more money in education (read: pay higher taxes) will typically have better schools because they can afford to pay the best teachers and buy the most modern equipment. As a result, people with school age kids shop around for the county/local government area to live in, which also means that demand for houses in that area will increase.

In the US, if you want your kids to go to a good school, you will have to buy or rent a house in a relatively expensive area so that you can send them to a public school or buy a house in a cheaper area and send them to a private school.

great point

With Buhari in power and the reforms going on now especially in the Government Schools i belive management of the school is now more efficient and productive, although there is room for impeovement, and with the employment drive for University Graduates to be trained and employed in Government Primary Schools that is also a good one that will ensure standards are kept and met.

Seun please do something about your mods that keep bringing out juvenile topics to front page like tonto dike wore these and that, davido baby mama(are we praising fornication?), etc instead Nation building topics and Anti corruption topics is what we need most now on the front page and views will still be same or more. Thank you. From Akanbi Abdullahi Adeshola www.facebook.com/akanbiabdullahi

You Nailed it brother.

ronkebp:
One cannot trust those principals, we know how ''money conscious'' an average Nigerian can be, they would turn the whole system upside-down with greed.