Kenneth Imansuangbon is an educator, legal practitioner, politician, businessman, philanthropist and the chairman of Pacesetters’ Schools, Abuja. Ahead of the school’s Graduation Dinner held yesterday and the Graduation and Prize-giving Day Ceremony, which holds today, he spoke with OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, on issues confronting the education sector in the country and proffered solutions, while highlighting some of the distinguishing features of the 22-year-old institution he chairs.

 There is this trend in social media where education is described as a scam. Do you believe in this notion?
Not at all! Education is still the barometer, the mirror for development. Education is the roadmap to whatever an individual will become. It is the compass for community development. Whether there will be peace, growth, it is good education that determines that. Those who are saying that education is not important should get their heads examined.

There is this worrying trend of parents removing their children/wards from schools and enrolling them in internet fraud schools, popularly called HK, to learn internet fraud. How concerned are you about this development as an educator?
  It is very disturbing and troubling because education is the future. Government must rise to the occasion. If they find any Nigerian, any group of people doing such evil, such a person must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. For Nigeria, the only future we see is education. We must not put the gear on the reverse in our educational system. We should rather advance. The century we are now is only about education. People are talking about Artificial Intelligence (AI). India has left us behind. South Korea has left us behind. Even Dubai and Saudi Arabia; their citizens used to come to University College Ibadan to study.

I call on all our politicians, especially our governors, to rescue our educational system. A country whose educational system is nose-diving is not ready for the 21st century benefits and developments. To get Nigeria sailing, we must get our educational system right. It starts from the cradle. From primary to secondary, from secondary to university, we must have an organised synergy and the purpose of education must be to transform and develop a country. That’s the end goal.

When you are educated, you are liberated. Education gives a man freedom; freedom to talk, interact, disagree with the government, disagree with parents respectfully and even with your teachers in class. That’s what education does. It liberates you. It takes the scale off your eyes.

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), over 20 million Nigerian children are out-of-school. Is this not an indictment on the government?
Well, it is not an indictment. Rather, I will say it is a challenge. The government should be challenged; every right thinking government should see it as a call to duty. We must build more schools and increase the budget for education.

I want to appeal to every Nigerian that we must stop crimes. The money the Federal Government is using to fight crimes in the country, if we channeled that energy into education, Nigeria would have gone far. The over 20 million out-of-school children need to be in school. To do that, we must get our priorities right. All hands must be on deck. The Dangotes and Elumelus of this world must take the challenge and invest massively in education. We must fund research in our universities. We must deliberately create funding for universities. We must identify the major universities and make them centres of excellence. Education should not be third in funding in the budget. It must come first.

What is your reaction to accusations that private schools are charging exorbitant school fees that are out of the reach of the common man?
  Because the economy is poor, people will always complain. School fees in Abuja are realistic because education is also not cheap. Good, quality education is expensive. The cost of running the private school system today is very high. Power supply is not stable; you have to get diesel and all of that. Education is a reflection of the country. You can’t hide it.

But I would also advise that school fees should have a human face because at the end of the day, if you are an educator, your goal should be making the world a better place. Today with the poor economy, you can’t even ask the government to come to the aid of private school owners. But I want to urge private school owners that our goal should be making the country better. At the end of the day, education that is not geared towards making Nigeria a better place is not education. It is just a money-making machine.

In Pacesetters’, if your father is serving in the military, Customs, Police, Immigration, you get a scholarship. There are people from basic to secondary school in Pacesetters’ that don’t pay a dime. We give back to society.

How has Pacesetters’ Schools fared in the last 22 years of its existence?
  It has been wonderful with God’s blessings, Abuja community blessings and our parents in Abuja. They have been the champions of our success, our children’s success. And of course our teachers! They are dedicated and they are the best in the world. They are determined and resolute that they will impact the change needed for education in Nigeria and the world. We can brighten our corner, making the world a better place through education.

With our teachers’ determination, their vibrancy, commitment, desire for a better Nigeria, better world and of course supported by my wonderful wife, Kate Imansuangbon; a very ebullient, cerebral and hardworking partner, we must leave this world better than we met it.

There are several private schools in Abuja and its environs. What stands Pacesetters’ Schools out?
  We have consistently raised the bar of academic excellence in pushing other schools to strive for similar heights. What has accounted for this is our teachers. They have brought innovative teaching methods. What makes Pacesetters’ peculiar is our method of teaching. Our approach to teaching and learning inspired other educators to adopt similar methods such as personalised learning, project based learning, collaborative learning and reward applications.

For instance, in project based learning, our homework is monitored online. The parents  participate. Those projects are scored. The difference between Western world school system and ours is project. In Pacesetters’ we do physical projects. You design things and make things happen. We also have what you call collaborative learning; that is, there is collaborative teaching among the students, teachers, parents and even the community.

The innate knowledge and talents of our teachers is second to none. For you to qualify as a teacher in Pacesetters’, you must be one of the best in the country. So, our teachers are actually the best because you must study Education. Even if you branch off, you must have what the Federal Government has laid. The Federal Government must also be given kudos. They said for you to teach in schools, you must have a degree in Education. And I must also salute the administrators in the FCT.

We also send our teachers on training. We have provided training and development opportunities for teachers, enhancing the quality of education in Abuja and Nigeria in general. Teachers must not stop at the university system. We give them seminars. We bring in experts; some from the United Kingdom. They come and train them. There is what we call Interactive Pacesetters’ Session where we bring in people even from Lagos and other parts of the country. With this, teachers’ horizons are broadened. They take what they learn in seminars back to the class. So, a teacher that has been impacted by others will impact the children.

Many times, our teachers have travelled to the United States on international engagements and seminars. Some of our teachers have visited Japan, special thanks to the Japanese Government. They have a programme where they expose Nigerian teachers and Pacesetters’ has benefitted twice from this. International exposure has put our teachers ahead. So, when you have a bilateral, multilateral agreement, you know what that means to the school, the child, parents, the community and the country.

Our teachers are one of the top reasons we are ahead. And the story of Pacesetters’ can only be traced to parents’ cooperation, teachers’ cooperation and the desire and passion of the school director, Kate Imansuangbon, my wife.

Talking about sending your teachers abroad for training, are you not scared that they would abscond, especially in this era of Japa syndrome?
  Truth told, one or two stayed back. But the majority came back because it has to do with the honour and integrity of the teachers we sent. It has to do with the fact that we are meeting their needs. When you meet the needs of your teachers and staff, they will go to Germany, America, Europe, Asia and come back. Whether we like it or not, home is home.

Nigeria is one of the finest countries in the world. If we do the right thing, people will be ready to come back home. Japa syndrome is real. And those that came back are doing well today. What they have learnt in those countries they are transforming at Pacesetters’. They are transforming the children. They are transforming the country. Our children are ahead; thanks to our teachers.
 

Graduates of Pacesetters’ are independent minded. By the time they graduate, they are their own bosses. They don’t wait for the world to give them employment. If they pass through our basic, secondary schools, we have prepared them not to be dependent on white collar jobs. Rather, wherever they are they should be pace setters; open up the space and leave the place better than they met it.

The world doesn’t want liabilities. The world wants to benefit from you. As I speak to you, a Pacesetters’ graduate works as a superstar in National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in far away America. He went overseas, studied there and he is doing well. Another Pacesetters’ child is a medical doctor in Oxford University. She is doing very well. The parents came and thanked me; they brought a bowl of gifts.

Anybody who passes through Pacesetters’ is a champion and knows that he must leave society better than he or she met it. In Pacesetters’ we turn crude students into gold. We refine them. It is a refinery centre where we refine minds for tomorrow’s expectation. The world needs champions, people who will bring succour, hope, happiness and make life better.

Any education that doesn’t guarantee joy, happiness, transformation and development is not education. Tell me who is educated, I will show you the man who will not steal, cheat, break the rules and is punctual to work. That’s what we are seeking to achieve at Pacesetters’.

On a final note, what would you want to be remembered for?
  I want to be remembered as a man who led Pacesetters’ to have a benchmark for excellence in education by providing quality education, inspiring other institutions to strive for similar excellence through producing very strong and formidable alumni of the institution. I want to be remembered as a man who through the school system was able to contribute and change Nigeria for a better world.