Thank you for joining me today. I hope the discussion is getting interesting. Let me announce that as from Thursday, November 1, 2012, I will only post my articles on my blog: www.taiwoakinlami.wordpress.com and post the link on my Facebook and Twitter accounts.

I am still discussing the first fact you must consider, which is ‘what is the motive of the promoters of the school? I begin today by discussing how we determine the motive of promoters of private schools. I think the first test motive is mentality. Mentality here means world view. It means personal perspective of life. It may also be called the philosophy of life. A man’s motive for doing anything in life will never rise above his/her mentality. It may interest us to know that mentality is a product of one’s experiences. It is also important to know that expressly defined or not, every man living has a philosophy of life to which he/she is committed wholeheartedly. In the school system today, there are 3 mentalities I have found from my experience among school owners and leaders. The first is The Survival Mentality: These ones are only interested in meeting their daily needs and they would do anything lucrative to meet their needs. Nothing urges this people on but their hunger. Hunger also comes with selfishness. The hungry wants to corner everything. A 19 year old boy teaches 9 subjects in a school and he is on N5, 000 monthly salary, which is not paid regularly. At the end of year, the school urged parents to bring foodstuffs for their end of the year party.

The 19 year old boy was appointed the chairman of the end of the year party. At the end of the party, there were foodstuffs left. The teachers asked the chairman to speak to the school owner on their behalf if they could share the leftover foodstuffs. The fact that the chairman could ask infuriated the school owner, who warned him sternly and instructed the chairman to put all the leftover in her car, saying, ‘where were all of you when I started this school?’ The second mentality is The Investment Mentality: Those who have resources and they want to invest in anything lucrative. I have met countless of these ones, who desire multiple source of income and found the school system as their prey. They are only interested in the naira and kobo no more no less. They commit resources to expansion of the business than any other thing in the school.

The third mentality is The Genuine Educationist Mentality: I have met very few of these ones. I mean very few. These ones set up their schools to do all things in the best interest of the child except things they are not aware of. They are genuinely concerned about every single child. By their disposition, they are teachable and receptive to new ideas.

I must say that the first category are too many, the second category are also very many but the last category are very few. How do I decode each of them? Well, I think it is your responsibility as a parent to sit down with the leadership of the school in which you want to register your child or the school he/she attends and ask some critical question, some of which will form the 15 facts to consider. Have an INSPIRED day.