Mrs. Kehinde Phillips, the Executive Director of Edgewood College, Lekki, Lagos spoke toUJUNWA ATUEYI on various issues affecting the education sector. Excerpts: Passion behind establishment of EdgewoodMy passion as a person has always been to see how to be of service to humanity. What can I do differently that could leave a mark What kind of legacy will I leave behind Yes I studied law, I worked in the bank, I never liked the law course. By the time I did my law office attachment, I knew I wouldnt want to practice. Because I have always been passionate about good education, I have always felt things can be done better. I feel that the best legacy a parent can leave for the children is good education, is not the number of houses, cars, or shares rather good and well-balanced education and that has been my drive.On the high rate of failure in the West African Senior School Certificate ExaminationI would say that the lapses had come from the government. Adequate checks and balances are not in place. There is a lot of cheating going on, even some of the qualified ones, when you examine them, you will discover they were not the ones that did the work. You find that integrity has a huge role to play in the educational sector, so the more of us that can come into the sector that have integrity that will make these children imbibe good values and know that look I can accomplish this as long as I can put in hard work; no matter their level, you have to let them know that much can be achieved through hard work.Government has to find ways of making this system better and attractive for West African Examination Council (WAEC) Staff, examiners and other bodies that partner in the conduct of the public examination, so that these officials will stop looking for alternatives to enrich themselves by compromising standard and values. If they are well remunerated and taken care of they will not encourage malpractices.Why are private schools usually expensiveWhat I feel is that, the time of a professional teachers has come. Teachers are very poorly paid in this country. If you want to get the best hands, you have to pay a premium. If you want your children to be able to compete in any part of the world, you have to pay a premium for that quality. It is unfortunate that the government of Nigeria has not realized that, because that is one of the reasons why we have problems in the educational sector. They have not realized that if you want good education for the children, teachers who have spent so much time investing in their own education must be adequately compensated. You have to think of their general well-being and deserved allowances because if the children are looking down on their teachers, then we will continue to have problems in our educational sector. Most of the time, you find out that the children are much more well advanced in exposure than their teachers. We have to get to a stage where teachers are trained continuously and we must expose them to other parts of the world, and invest in their training.But when a teacher has not left the shores of his or her country and the child has gone so many times, of course, the child can come to class and talk to the teacher anyhow and even some parents. But when you raise the bar, when you make teachers feel like professionals they live up to expectations.I spoke to some teachers and they told me I have been in this field over 15 years but the most I have gone is South Africa. I send so many children to the United Kingdom and I have never been there. So, how do you expect that teacher, who teaches British curriculum to adequately practice these things and impact on the children That is why sometimes, a lot of them are looking for the shortcut. They dont devote the amount of time they should actually devote to teaching because they feel they have to run around to support themselves. Just as government is still battling with Teachers Salary Structure (TSS), I think a policy has to be put in place concerning teachers welfare and general wellbeing of our education sector.On the level of moral decadence among adolescentsIt is really appalling. Moralilty has been thrown into the winds, and for me, it is because there is a total loss of values. Value begins from home. Like I said earlier, the child is developed not just by the home alone, but by the institutions they attend. So when you have the home doing the right thing, the institutions focusing on the right thing with discipline, then we have values. So it is tripartite agreement- the parent, children and the school, and at the top of that parent, we have the God factor.Views on sexuality education Every Friday we have a moral/career talk. We invite experienced people in the society to address and guide them on how to identify their potentials, development and live a good life. Once in a while, we put article on a notice board that have to do with sexuality education, because wee need to talk to them about it. It is very important they must be educated about the ills of taking some steps earlier than they should and the institution of marriage is the only place where God permits sex. So I make them understand that.
Click here to read full news..
