About 23 of the UK’s most prominent boarding schools will visit Nigeria between January to search for talented students to enrol.
According to reports , the schools will hold sessions with interested parents and students at the Wheatbaker Hotel in Ikoyi, Lagos , on Saturday, January 14, 2024. The event is tagged UK Boarding Schools Week.
The event is in association with the UK’s Department for International Trade and is Organised by Mark Brooks Education .
The leading schools and organisations taking part are Aldenham, Badminton, Bishop’s Stortford College, Box Hill School, Cardiff Sixth Form College, CATS Global Schools, Cognita and David Game College, and Dean Close.
Others are Dulwich College, Fragomen, Haberdashers’ Monmouth, Malvern St James Girls’ School, MPW Colleges, Nord Anglia Education, St. Andrew’s College, Cambridge, TASIS, Truro High School for Girls, and Wycliffe College.
Cory Lowde, Headmaster at Box Hill School, said he is excited to welcome Nigerian students due to how they contribute to the school community, get stuck in adventurous activities, excel in sports and other fields, and bring a sense of responsibility to the community.
Lowde said Nigerian students add to the well-being of everyone they interact with.
Shona Norman, head of Woodbridge School, commended Nigerian students for excelling in sports and academics.
Norman said:
“We have always had several Nigerian students over the years, and they settle very quickly.
“In my experience, Nigerian students want to contribute to the wider life of the school. They are not just talented and hard-working academically, but I also find that they benefit from co-curricular opportunities such as drama, sports and music.”
Commenting on the solid pastoral care at his school, Mr Lowde says,
“We are beautiful to West African students because, first and foremost, we are a family. We do focus on the individual. All the concerns that parents might have are also concerns for us.”
The fall in education standards has given rise to private schools that have latched onto the gaps to create a serious disparity in the school system.
While Nigeria is battling the menace of out-of-school children, estimated by UNESCO to stand at 20 million, there are school proprietors who make a kill from the failure of the system.
It is estimated that Nigeria has about 9,500 public and 17,000 private secondary schools.
