Notwithstanding the importance of education as bedrock and foundation of the development of any society, many private universities in Nigeria do not offer courses in education.

Our correspondents in this report examine some of the factors that make private universities not to offer education courses.

Private universities came to be in Nigeria through the promulgation of Decree No 9 of 1993, largely due to the inability of public universities to cope with the demand of tertiary education.

The Federal Government deregulated university education to allow private involvement in order to complement efforts at providing quality education.

It became obvious that it is the responsibility of both government and private organisations to rise to the challenge and provide access to higher education for the ever growing number of candidates seeking higher education in the country.

Currently, there are 79 private universities in the country, but access to university education is still limited due to high cost of fees in those institutions.

Many of these private universities offer varied courses, ranging from Engineering, Medicine, Economics, Computer Science, Law, Information Technology, among others.

However, checks by Daily Trust showed that many of the perceived big private universities do not offer education courses, such as Covenant University, Landmark University, Afe Babalola University, Bowen University, Redeemers and a host of others.

Also, findings showed that the ones offering education are mostly faith-based universities.

Some people who spoke to our correspondents said this situation would likely be connected to the high fees charged by private schools and low demands for education courses by admission seekers.

Out of the four private universities in Abuja – Baze University, Nile University, African University of Science and Technology and Veritas University – only the latter offers education courses.

Both Baze and Nile varsities offer courses within six faculties without Education.

Speaking to reporters, Sister Dr Chika Ezeh, a senior lecturer and coordinator of postgraduate studies in Veritas University, Abuja, said they offered education courses, but people didn’t attach importance it; hence it is difficult to get people who want to be teachers.

According to her, there are few students studying education when compared to other courses.

They are quite few, but not the least. And the number we have is because it is a Catholic university.

We have a lot of Reverend Sisters who traditionally run schools, so they come and study education.

If you remove them we will go back to few.

So those religious organisations boost our education department, as well as some foreign organisations that sponsor Sisters to study education,

she said.

She said even in public universities where they offer education courses, more people prefer Medicine, Engineering, Law and others.

But at the end, it is people who did not read Education that end up teaching.

In public schools where the fees are not outrageous, not many people subscribe to education.

In private schools there is no subsidy in fees, it is pay-as-you-go, so many parents would not pay that high for their children to study Education to become teachers.

They rather go for courses like Medicine, Law or even History and International Relations, or better still.

The course is not attractive, so private universities are not going to mount it.

Who are they going to get? They will prefer to go for professional courses where people are interested in because what they get is what they use in paying salaries,

she explained.

If you mount education courses and have three or four students, you won’t have three or four lecturers and be paying them,

she added.

In Kano State, the only private university, Skyline University, is not offering Education courses.

The spokesman of the university, Unique Abade Christian, said that they there was a plan to offer Education courses in the future.

It is in our plan. We applied to the National Universities Commission (NUC) to offer several courses, but they only gave us 15, such as Nursing and Physiotherapy.

Tourism is already in the pipeline.

We are waiting for their confirmation. Courses are released gradually. Very soon Education will commence,

he said.

For Dr Aisha Aminu of the Department of Entrepreneurship at the Dangote Business School, Bayero University, Kano, it would have been more appropriate for private universities to incorporate Education courses to the ones being offered.

There is no reason for them not to have Education courses.

However, on a commercial basis, it may be a reason because they may not generate enough revenue.

But a Faculty of Education should not be left out in a university, no matter what,

she said.

In Edo State, there are three private universities, namely, Igbinedion University, Okada, Ovia North East Local Government; Benson Idahosa University, Benin and Adegboyega University, Ogwa Esan West Local Government.

Of the three private universities, only Benson Idahosa has a Department of Education.

A source in the university who did not want to be named said,

We have Education Department, not a faculty, and we are running over five courses. And plans are underway to expand it to a faculty.

Iginedion University does not offer Education courses, but Flavision gathered that plans are underway to begin a Faculty of Education in the institution.

A source in one of the private institutions told our correspondent that most of the private institutions are not willing to establish a Faculty of Education because they believe that not many people would afford to pay the high fees of private schools to study such courses.

Meanwhile, Prof. Eddy Erhagbe, the Dean, Faculty of Art, University of Benin, said the problem with the education system is that there are qualified teachers out there who have not been engaged by either the federal or state government or private school proprietors.

He advised both the federal and the state governments to go back to the old days where incentives were given to those who were willing to read education courses, and upon graduation, given employment with higher incentives.

As it is, we have more than enough qualified unemployed teachers, and it is hoped that both the federal and state governments would employ them.

Most of the private universities are now establishing Faculty of Education,

he said.

According to him, government should make teaching job attractive with incentives.

Once that is done, people will be fighting to read Education courses as it was in the seventies.

However, in Al-Qalam University, Katsina, there are 26 programmes offered, out of which eight are in the College of Education.

The Dean of College of Education, Dr Gide Umar Saleh, said Education programmes were offered in Al-Qalam because the university is a bit different from other private varsities.

Al-Qalam is more of a community university.

And we know that in Nigeria, teachers, especially trained ones, are scarce.

So to have a university in Katsina State without providing education services might not be the best thing to do.

That was why it was decided that a College of Education should be established.

And it has been very successful, making an impact, especially in the northwestern geo-polical zone,

he said.

On why some of the private universities are not willing to offer education programmes, Dr Saleh said,

Unfortunately, in Nigeria, the teaching profession is for the poor and many parents might not be willing to sponsor their children to take a degree in a private university, where a lot of money is paid.

Also, Kwararafa University, located in Wukari town in the Taraba State capital, is the only private university in the state.

The institution, which is a community-based university, has a Faculty of Education and has graduated many students.

In Benue, the only private university, the University of Mkar, Mkar (UMM), Gboko is faith-based.

It has a total of 1,400 students spread across its three colleges running 18 programmes. Sixteen of the programmes are fully accredited by the NUC.

The public relations officer of the institution, James Mazda, told our correspondent that the school also runs a Faculty of Science/Education.

He added that although the population of students in Education courses was minimal, the school, however, resolved to continue with the programme.

Another faith-based private university, Bingham University, Kodape, Karu, Nasarawa State, also offers 31 degree programmes, among which is Guidance and Counseling, an education-related course.

A former vice chancellor of the Nasarawa State University (NSUK), Keffi, Professor Muhammad Abuna Mainoma said,

Private universities could offer courses in education if they get students that would register for the programmes. They will also consider profit after offsetting the cost of running the programmes,

he said.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.