Services : Public vs private schools

Greetings!

One thing about both the government and the private own organization or institution is that they are both driving towards the provision or rendering of services to the entire populace of a country. But in this part of the world, nothing is free, even in Freetown. What do I mean by this? What I meant by this is that, even, apart from both of them rendering services to people, both are also put in place to make profits for those that put them in place, being it government or the private individuals that owned them.

Going by my observation of the two owned organizations, there are many positive and negative sides of the two. Though, the two are useful to the existence of human through the services they both render, but the way and manner through which they are being managed always determine the outcome of the results of their services.

Thank God I have been through the services of both, not only as a beneficiary but also, as a worker. So, I really understand how both works most especially in my country Nigeria. This my experience of both state and private owned organizations stems from me being a child cum student in both the private and the state owned schools when I was young and when I grew up, I still have the privilege to be a worker in both state and privately owned schools.

But to start with, I will like to share my childhood experiences of being a student in both the public and the private school in Nigeria. Then while growing up, I was first enrolled in the public school where my mum worked. So, on getting to the school, my mum.handed me to the teachers taking various subject and I really enjoyed being a teacher's child, though that didn't last long as some of the teachers later got engaged with one or two things and they were unable to attend to me as of before. But that's not actually where I'm driving at, the fact that the teachers in the public or government owned school have this lackadaisical attitude to work was one thing I detested so much. Though, they were brilliant and graduated as best students from their various disciplines, but the way and manner they manage their duties of impacting knowledge was very poor even till now. Unlike when I went to enrol for my SSCE in the private school. My mum who happened to be a teacher decided to register me in the private school due to the bad performance of the student in the external exam. Though the ball of the fault was on the teacher, but to be candid, some of the public school students are not serious, they see themselves as nothing that can't make it in life, maybe that's why most of the teachers don't take their wards to the public school.

This I used to wonder how it's become difficult to enrol your ward to the school where you are teaching which is even free without paying dime, but the reverse is the case, maybe because of their nonchalant attitude to work. Unlike the private schools where most of the students there are teacher's wards or kids. The believe in the private school here is second to non and maybe due to some certain factors such strike and other factors that can hinder smooth running the learning process, people tends to take their ward to the private school and ditch free education for the expensive one in this part of the world. Though we have better public schools , but their preferences for the private school cannot be joked with.. So, this coupled with the lackadaisical actions of the teachers, the free education put in place were amounted to nothing.

But on getting to the private school, I was treated well and tutored well, but one thing that amazed me was the level of malpractices during the exam, this was so high that I couldn't bear it while writing the exam and this stems from how I was groomed by my parent. Though, I didn't partake in the atrocities committed by the school, but I still cleared all my result once.

Another thing is the way they were left unchecked by the government unlike the private owned school proprietor who will not joke with his or her school, but give close monitoring to the conduct of the teachers working for him or her as I have experienced when working with the private school owned by a proprietor. Elder Oyesola would even deduct from your salary if you come late, talkless of you not coming to school at all. Though, there were inspectors assigned to monitor the activities of the teachers, but what they do was just to inspect once in a term and after that, nothing else till the other time and since the teachers are well familiar with this method, what they do is to prepare very well for that single day and as soon as the inspection is over, nothing more as the writing of lesson plan stopped for the term immediately the inspectors stepped out of the school compound. I'm living witness to this as I also experience it as a teacher.

This is unlike the private owned school where there's always a thorough inspection almost everyday of the term. Just of recent, the state government of the state I worked for employed another set of teachers and when these new set came, they were working hard as they were used to from the private owned school they were coming from. So, when they got to know how the system works in their new place of assignment, they got relaxed and were not as efficient as they were when they first came.

Though, the private owned school have their short comings, and one major short coming of the private school is how they treat their employees. Then, they treated us badly by not paying our salary account until you do justice to your work. In most of the private owned school in my area, there's much work and less pay. So, these people work like an elephant and eat like an ant. As if that's not enough, some and not all of them engage in exam malpractice just to attract more students to their school in the next exam year. This they do by reeling out their best students results to the world.

So, both the state and the private owned institutions are put in place for the betterment of the people and most especially the masses, but both their positive and negative side as discussed above are those things influencing and at the same time affecting the effectiveness of their services operations.

This is my entry to the week 154, Edition 01 of the weekly Featured contest in the Hive Learners community.

Thanks for reading.

Al pictures are mine