Nothing illustrates a state in retreat/a failing state like this factoid - up to 70 percent of all schools in Lagos are privately owned! Think about it, in spite of the massive amounts of money available to Nigerian government over the last decade, the government has failed to (a) either provide the infrastructure for education or (b) adequately train teachers.

There are about 1.9 million children of school age in Lagos and out of that number only about 400,000 are enrolled in public schools. Since the literacy rate in Lagos is about 92 percent, one can assume that at least 1.4 million children are enrolled in private schools!

Lagos is the richest part of Nigeria. The situation in Lagos should give you an idea of what the difficulties would be in Northern Nigeria. Spending money on that part of the country simply won't do the trick. Government lacks the capacity to adequately administer Nigeria. Very troubling.

Lagos — A peep into the result of census of schools in Lagos conducted towards the end of last year has shown that most of the schools in the state are privately owned.

A comprehensive result of the census of primary and secondary schools conducted by the Lagos State Government in collaboration with Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria (ESSPIN) beginning last year November would be made known in a later date.

ESSPIN Lagos State Team Leader, Dr. Gboyega Ilusanya, disclosed that as many as 70 per cent of all the schools in the state are owned by private operators. He, however, emphasised that the census is basically for data collection intended to develop the sector through strategic planning.

Ilusanya, who was guest at a recent media-training event in Lagos, also noted that the private schools were more willing to be part of the census, because they were assured that the exercise was not going to be used to deal with them for defaulting on standards.

He said the result of the census would aid in the provision of necessary information on enrolment, location and name-search for both public and private schools operating in the state.

EMIS State Specialist of ESSPIN (Kwara and Lagos), Dr. Joanna Harma, who explained the rationale for the schools' census in an interview with Daily Independent said, "The private school growth in Lagos has been spontaneous and unassisted by government, and these schools' ability to serve the population at nearly all socio-economic levels is highly significant. Therefore, the contributions of private schools needed to be recognised and better understood."

She remarked that the federal government's estimation of about 1.9 million children of school age in the state cannot be adequately backed by any document, adding that the state government can only account for 400,000 in public schools, meaning the rest of the children are out of the school or in private schools.

She also doused fears that the exercise was meant for inspection purposes and tax collection, adding that the data was basically to be used for planning purposes and possibly for designing intervention programmes to support private school initiatives in the state.

Ilusanya noted, "There is a peculiar issue in Lagos. The number of children in public primary school is documented by government. At the point of transition to Junior Secondary School, the state usually had more than 100 per cent transition. If we are expecting 100 from public schools to move into JSS or SSS classes in schools owned by government, we end up having more than 100 per cent enrolment. At that time one begins to wonder where they are coming from. This, most times, destabilises government plans, programmes and strategy for learning because the data of likely number that may come from the private schools is not accurate or non-existent and these are important and invaluable information needed for planning