"\u2018Japa\u2019 wave, rising rents take toll on school business"

" \u2018Japa\u2019 wave, rising rents take toll on school business \r\nThe mass emigration of professionals from Nigeria, popularly called \u2018japa\u2019 (a Yoruba word for \u201crun quickly\u201d), and surging rental costs are piling more pressure on school operators.\r\n\r\nSome secondary and primary school operators in Africa\u2019s biggest economy are considering shutting down their schools if their situation fails to improve as the number of students and pupils continues to decline owing to the rising number of parents relocating abroad with their children.\r\n\r\nFAJIP Schools at Ilamoshe Estate is one school that has taken a beating from the \u2018japa\u2019 wave, with five families moving abroad with their children.\r\n\r\nA staff member of the school revealed that the school lost 15 students from the five families.\r\n\r\nShe said the exit of those students cost the school between N750,000 and N1,00,000 or even more, because some of them were in secondary school.\r\n\r\n\u201cI think five of the students were in secondary school, while the rest were in primary and nursery cadres before they relocated. I don\u2019t know the exact amount, but their move has cost the school massive financial loss,\u201d she said.\r\n\r\nFaith Adewole, a researcher with the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta and co-founder of the Dayspring Model School, Abeokuta in Ogun State, said the exodus of Nigerians to other countries has affected the school severely.\r\n\r\nHe said the school suffered a loss of students and teachers as a result of parents and teachers moving abroad with their children.\r\n\r\nHe said: \u201c\u201cWe have about 10 families, seven parents and three teachers that have travelled abroad, and by implication with their children.\r\n\r\n\u201cThis affects the number of students and finance of the school; besides, because some of the teachers have left to seek greener pastures abroad, some parents have withdrawn their children from the school as well.\r\n\r\n\u201cSo it has a chain reaction effect that affects the school directly and indirectly. We are losing our students, however, not to the extent of closing down.\u201d\r\n\r\nElizabeth Ohaka, the proprietress of the Redwood Academy in Lagos, said the \u2018japa\u2019 wave has taken a toll on school business.\r\n\r\n\u201cSome of my students have left with their families abroad, and that for sure has adverse effects on the school\u2019s finance.\r\n\r\n\u201cSchool business thrives on numbers; the more children you have, the more income you generate. Hence, as these children relocate abroad, the school finance drops because their presence would have been added income. However, this has not got to the level of contemplating shutting down the school.\u201d\r\n\r\nBoye Ogundele, an administrator in a top-notch private school in Aja, Lagos, said most international schools have lost their students because of the \u2018japa\u2019 wave.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt is already affecting primary and secondary schools as parents are moving with their children and these are children who are supposed to enrol in high-brow schools,\u201d he said.\r\n\r\nAccording to a UNESCO report in March 2023, Nigeria had 71,753 students studying abroad.\r\n\r\nExperts believe that most of the people leaving the country to school abroad are doing so because the learning environment is poor in Nigeria.\r\n\r\nMoreover, the surging cost of living is another issue in Nigeria. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), annual inflation rate in Nigeria accelerated for a sixth month to 22.79 percent in June 2023, the highest since September of 2005.\r\n\r\nStanley Alaubi, senior lecturer at the University of Port Harcourt, said the economic realities will increase the number of school drop-outs.\r\n\r\n\u201cHunger is now the most important thing to Nigerians. Bare necessity is now what people consider the most. Schooling is now a luxury that people cannot afford, hence \u2018japa\u2019 is the escape route,\u201d he said.\r\n\r\nBusinessDay also gathered the surge in rents in Lagos and some other major cities is threatening the existence of some schools, with the owners at the mercy of their landlords.\r\n\r\nJoseph Ibukun, a school owner at Itire suburb of Lagos, told BusinessDay that he closed down his school because it became a serious source of stress to him.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe landlord sold the building without prior notice, and the cost of getting a new property is beyond what I can handle now; so I had to sell off the furniture and look for another business to do,\u201d he said.\r\n\r\nA 2022 UNESCO report noted that approximately 20 million Nigerian children were out of school.\r\n\r\nIfeanyi Udeogu is a parent whose children were evacuated from a school in Ilasamaja after the landlord sold the property.\r\n\r\n\u201cI don\u2019t even know what to do if I should change their school, it means changing their entire uniforms and books. The money is not there, we are just managing. We are hoping the school owner will do something before school resumes,\u201d he said.\r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n "

"\u2018Japa\u2019 wave, rising rents take toll on school business"

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