Monday, October 30, 2006

The privatisation of Unity Schools

I'm a little confused. There's been uproar about the alleged privatisation of Federal Government schools, which the Pres tried to lay to rest late last week. He said that Unity schools are not being privatised, they are being put under a PPP management arrangement.

So, the argument would be that because a school owned by the state is now under private management, it has not been privatised right? Does the PPP not confer any ownership onto private sector 3rd parties in this arrangement? I thought the point of public-private partnerships was that at least some ownership was sold off (otherwise its just management outsourcing), with the private company turning the school into a commercial business. Very little has really been made clear in all of this. The story will surely rumble on.

There's been some talk that Britain has shown the way in PPP for education. Never has a bigger joke been enunciated. Just as the UK is selling schools to anyone (secondhand car salesmen with creationist intent), so too the Scientologists and other assorted fruitcakes may have spotted the ultimate opportunity in Nigeria. As we are now seeing, the whole 'faith school's policy has blown up in Blair's face (it being a convenient way to turn comprehensives into madrasas in Bradford). Are faith schools the way to go in Nigeria - as with the rash of new religious universities? I don't think so, if tolerance is continued to be valued as a virtue. Secular will continue to be misunderstood as 'circular' in Nigeria.

1 comments:

Anonymous,  4:08 pm  

Oby and Uncle Sege think we are unquestioning enough to accept that PPP is not privatisation.

And we're not, are we?

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