Why are British boarding schools so eager to open in Nigeria star-news.press/wp

For many years, Nigerians have sent their children well-excluded in prestigious British embarkation schools – but now some of these institutions place campuses in the most populous nations of Africa.

Last year, Charterhouse launched elementary school in Lagos and will open high school this September.

Rugby School will also begin to offer secondary education in September. Other famous institutions, such as Millfield, Wellington School and harrows, also explore opportunities in Nigeria.

This obviously comes with a price for Nigerian parents – but the good heel elite in the country historically sent its children to the UK for secondary education, pulled the Rigia British curriculum, prestige and global opportunities.

“I’m actually excited about that,” says Karim Oyeda, the British-Nigerian management advisor, whose son is currently in Rugby in Rugby, but will move to his Lagos School.

Her family has sense to relocate to Nigeria for a while, but it was not done so earlier for children’s education.

“Have the opportunity to experience a British system in their country of origin is the best of both worlds,” she says.

Nigeria already has a dissemination of private schools, but high-quality, internationally recognized education in the country encourages many parents, especially those who want to preserve the cultural identity of their children.

“African parents love the fact that they give their children to compete with their colleagues in any other part of the world, but they do not want their children to lose the African,” Founder in the capital Nkuzhi in the capital Nigeria, Abuja.

An educational advisor consultents parents and schools on international embarking opportunities, explains to relax, less respectful attitude of children after being appreciated in school abroad always.

This cultural dilemma expands to a growing conversation about LGBTQ issues. Same-sex relations and public exhibitions are illegal in Nigeria and homosexuality are not discussed or promoted.

It is something that the new crop of British schools took over on board. For example, while Charterhouse UK shows the rainbow flag, Nigeria school does not.

“We are a British independent school, but we firmly sit within Nigerian cultural needs,” says John Todd, Charterhouse Nigeria.

“There is that great concern about the Western cultural view.

“For parents here we know that it is a really big question. That’s why parents are worried about schools in the UK.

“I don’t make a verdict – it’s just the way it is.”

British institutions in Nigeria have no choice except that “follow the law of the country,” admits, adding, “We are 100% in accordance”.

Recognizing the deep religious society Nigeria, Charterhouse also allows parents to take their children home from online houses for Sunday church services, with expectations to return to Monday morning.

There are several reasons behind the increasing interest of prestigious British schools in the introductory campus in Nigeria.

While the regions like the Middle East and China are already saturated by international schools, Africa is a relatively virgin territory.

“Nigeria is an entrance to Africa, and Africa is somehow the last continent for British schools in,” says Mark Brooks, export champion for business and trade.

He organizes annual events in Nigeria, where about 20 British schools meet potential students and parents.

“Nigeria has an incredible reputation for the production of guided, high achievement of students,” Mr. Brooks says.

“There is no school I’m not working with not recently had a Nigerian student as a major boy or deputy head. The student can join the six-shape and in the end be the main boy within a year.

“I brought hundreds of teachers in Nigeria over the years, and it is in the UK that we must take Nigerian seriously.”

Timming has also proven key, because the cost of sending children in the great Britain. Just three years ago, the local currency exchange rate was 500 Naira to £ 1; He is now standing at 2,200 Naira.

In addition, the government’s government in the UK recently imposed 20% VAT on private school fees.

In addition to tuition fees, families face additional costs as if flights for students and visit their parents.

The establishment of these schools in Nigeria allows families to maintain the same standard of education, and a significant reduction of financial stress.

The annual fees in Charterhouse UK, for example, is about £ 60,000 ($ 78,000), while the fees in their campus Lagos are equivalent to about £ 15,000.

“Our main teachers in the classroom are emigrants, but 90% of staff is locally,” says Mr. Todd.

Using local people in roles such as teachers, administration, finance, human resources, gardeners, drivers, dogs and secretaries, schools can significantly reduce costs in relation to the UK, where work is much more expensive.

The great educational gap already exists in Nigeria, and many parents who decide to be a private education of different qualities. They struggle to pay greater benefits, not to give our children to government schools, which are often free, but badly trained teachers and frequent blows are tortured.

As a result, the arrival of British schools cannot drastically change the Nigeria’s education system.

However, it could be a threat to established elite schools such as the British international school in Lagos and the Regent School in Abuja, which opened in the early 2000s.

Such schools have long been top elections for those who can pay annual tuition fees that often reach tens of thousands of dollars.

“Rugby School Nigeria also comes to support, develop and learn from schools currently being developed in Nigeria,” says Mr. Brooks, in charge of marketing schools.

“We come to help with partnerships, teacher training and a number of initiatives.”

Mr. Todd believes that the Nigerian market is large enough to accommodate all new schools without threats existing. About 40% of 200 million inhabitants are under the age of 14.

Expects to feel the greatest impact in the UK.

While Charterhouse UK usually has a long waiting list and should not be influenced, less requested schools can experience a declining entry thanks to the new competition in Nigeria.

“The interest in our high school is very strong,” Mr. Todd says. “We already have Nigerian parents in the UK who send their children to Charterhouse in Nigeria for September.”

In fact, reaching the Nigerians in the UK was one of their key marketing strategies.

“You get this Prime Brand at a lower price, and each Nigerian has aunt or uncle in Lagos” who can be a guard, adds.

It could be that this trend extends to British universities. The Nigerian Tertiary Educational System faces even greater challenges from its secondary sector, and many students who decide abroad.

Nigeria is 2023. Ranked among the top 10 countries for student visas in the UK, the data on the UK is stated.

But with foreign exchange difficulties and stricter visa regulations, studying abroad becomes more challenging – and consists of universities that rely on greater international tuition costs.

Earlier this month, the British Prophet Helen Hayes, the Chairman of the Parliamentary School Committee, admitted to the great extent of higher education in the UK was in need.

“Dozens of universities create superfluous cuts on courses, trying to stay on water in the middle of the uncertainty where their money comes,” She said when announcing a session for considering the future of the sector.

If enough nigerian students can no longer go to the Great Britain to study, British universities can find profitable to come to them, as they have elsewhere in the world.

In fact, Nigeria Prime Minister, the University of Ibadan, was founded in 1948. as a campus of the University of London, and the graduates were assigned the same value and prestige.

Ms. Uwakwe-Okoronkwo believes that many Nigerian parents would appreciate this opportunity, because they would allow them to stay in Nigeria long enough to move before they potentially move abroad, if they choose to do so.

“Many parents take care of being too early to send their children from the nest,” she says.

For MS Oyede, whose daughter will start in Rugby School in Lagos, comes in September, the time of all this cannot be better.

He says that the opening of the British school was already “incentive to return home.”

The prospects for the opportunities of the university would be a welcome bonus.

Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani is a free Nigerian journalist and a novelist based in Abuja and London.