In Nigeria, education has become a priority for children and sometimes even adults. Setting up a private school is not a bad idea at all. Private school business is currently one of the biggest businesses to embark upon. In fact, most school owners earn up to a million naira from their schooling business.
These days, most parents do not find it convincing to send their children and wards to public schools though it is relatively free. They feel their children and wards get the best attention and quality learning in private schools.
No matter the number of schools there is in Nigeria, there is always enough rooms for you to set up your own school business. With the increasing rate in the population of children in the country, in no time, your school can become one of the most successful schools in your area.
Here are the 5 major things you must do for excellent performance of your school:
Employ quality teachers
Teachers are one of the most important assets your school possesses. Parents love schools that employ quality teachers. It gives them the proper assurance that their children are being taught well. You can choose a proper standard of employing teachers with NCE certificates. They are the ones that have been taught skillfully on how to teach. I am not saying that B.Sc and HND holders do not know how to teach. Well, giving them a chance to stand before a class of students to teach gives you the right knowledge if they are fit for the job or not.
Respect the opinions of parents
You can organize PTA meetings once or twice in a term. In this meeting, parents, teachers and school authorities get to meet and analyze issues that concerns matters like school fees payment, learning performance of pupils and some other related problems that needs to be tackled. Listen carefully to what these parents have to say and make corrections to where they have discovered your school is faulty.
Give appropriate disciplinary measures to disobedient students
Beating should not always be the only way to correct the wrongs of pupils. Some parents do not like their child being flogged. In this case, you should come up with appropriate punishment do suite a child’s err. Make sure mal-treatment of pupils is not encouraged in your school.
Ensure school environment is always clean and tidy
Cleanliness they say is next to Godliness. How would you feel taking your ward to school only to meet the school environment looking so dirty and untidy? Of course you will not be happy. So is it if you are a school owner. You can employ cleaners that would be in charge of cleaning the school at all times. You can also set a roaster as regards to the pupils in charge of cleaning the different classes in the school on daily or weekly bases.
Provide all the necessary learning facilities
Learning facilities just like quality teaching also goes a long way in attracting parents to your school. Try as much as you can to follow the updated scheme of work endorsed by the Nigerian ministry of education. Provide a suitable environment and facilities for pupils to learn and you shall be surprised at the turnout of pupils that attend the school.
Let us now talk about the processes involved in starting a private school business in Nigeria
Purchase land and erect a school structure
Look for a suitable land in a good environment and buy. The size of the land should depend on the plan of the school structure you intend to build.
Do not set up your school in an area with less population. It makes advertising your school very difficult. Also parents love school that a nearer to their houses. In the case where building a school can be difficult, you can still go for a rented apartment. It tends to save cost.
Equip the classrooms
Buy all the necessary assets like students' chairs and tables, white or chalk board, electrical fan, light bulbs etc one can find in a classroom.
You can also beautify the classrooms with educational wall papers and artworks.
Some proprietors also install television sets in nursery classrooms to keep the pupils entertained. If you are financially capable of doing such then surely it is a good thing to do.
Register the school
Register your school's name at the corporate affairs commission. Choose a name that is short and can be easily remembered.
Follow the steps provided by the corporate affairs commission and fully register the school to avoid unnecessary complications in the future.
Employ qualified teachers
I have already discussed this earlier. Ensure to supervise the affairs of the teachers and see to it that they carry out their job effectively.
Advertise the school
Just like every other business, your school needs to be advertised to enable people know about it. You can choose to go with television and radio advertisement or better still create banners and share to people wherever you go.
You can also peak some pupils in the school and go round the area singing just to create awareness to people about your school.
Setting up a school can be tasking but it is a very lucrative business to venture into. For easy advertising, begin tutorial classes before converting it into a full time school.
You can also decide to buy a school bus to transport students home and also bring them to school.
The cost of starting a school depends on some factors like:
1. If you are going to erect a school structure or go for a rented apartment
2. The salary of teachers and other none teaching staffs
3. The number of teachers to be employed
4. Facilities needed in the school.
5. Amount of a school bus
So, I can not categorically give you an exact amount. All I can say is that from the research carried out starting a school business in Nigeria runs into millions of naira and the expectations are huge. You can start small, bit by bit and before you know it, you will grow as expected.
You can derive profit from school fees, lesson fees, extra lesson classes, organizing school parties and events and also sales of notebooks and textbooks.
Hope you found this post helpful? Feel free to comment and give your opinions about the topic. Share with others as well.
