How To Register A Private School In Nigeria

School can be defined as institution which is made for the instruction of children or people under college age.

An institution for instruction in a skill or business: a secretarial school or a karate school.

What is private school and what makes it private?

Private school in this context is where teaching and learning takes place and the management of such school is managed by people outside government circle. This can take place in a public building like a hall or a private owned building. It is private because it is owned and managed by an individual owner. Formerly schools are owned by government and religious organizations. Schools which are  owned by the government is known and called government schools, as those owned by churches or religious groups are known and called missionary school. While those privately owned by individuals are called private schools.

The number one priority of every parent is to send their child or children to school to acquire knowledge from infant, and school fees for these children may take more than fifty (50%) percent of what parents are working for, depending on the number of children they have.

Nursery and Primary school business in Nigeria has become more profitable these days than ever before due to the number of children that are given birth to every day. With such increase in the number of children given birth to yearly — comes the need for more Nursery and Primary schools that will cater for them, and the need for even more will continue over time.

In those days, a single government or missionary owned primary school in a community would be  enough to cater for the children of the entire community or communities beyond. Then, there was no need for private nursery and primary schools. Today, the story has changed — no single primary or nursery school would be able to take care of the entire kids in a community, especially in urban places like Lagos and Abuja.

It has also become the general perception that the standard of education in privately owned and managed schools are higher compared to that of the ill-equipped and badly maintained government owned schools.

Sending children to public schools is equally regarded as evidence of being poor or poverty. Therefore, every parent struggle to send their children to any available private school and it does not matter if that one is even worse than the public school as long as it is called a ‘Private school’. These general trends have combine to make investment into nursery and primary school a worthwhile investment.

I have seen someone who only manage to feed few years ago become a millionaire through the small nursery and primary school he borrowed money to start.

Some of the lowest nursery and primary schools in areas like Abuja and Lagos charge more than N7,000 as school fees, while good ones charge from N30,000 to as much as N500,000 school fees per term (I pay N75,000 for my 3years old daughter per term) just to learn A.B.C

Imagine a school charge N10,000 per term and you have 200 pupil, the amount you’ll be getting from school fees is 10,000 x 200 = 2,000,000 Naira Two million naira) per term and it would not take more than a million Naira to run such school every term.

Now you can see that investment in Private Nursery and Primary school is a worthwhile investment that has decent profit returns. If you are ready to hit the ground and get started, there are the requirements:

Land/building in a good Area

Prices of landed property varies from place to place but you can get land in some developing areas of Abuja and Lagos for about N600,000 to N2,000,000. Do not opt to buy in isolated area where people are not living, no parent would want to patronize you in such area.

Due the inherent risk involved in child’s movement, parent will prefer a school that is within their home, for easy pick up of their children.

Minimum plot of land is what you need to be able to accommodate the school building and playground.

Note: Some people go for rented apartment — if you do not have enough money to buy land and build your own house, rent an apartment, and use it to raise money to build later

 

Erect your building

The cost of building depends on the size and quality of the building you want to construct. Your En  gineer will be able to put you through all these, sit down with him to discuss it properly.

Insist on good structure because, your marketing starts from there. The classrooms should be spacious at least.

Most Nursery and Primary school class rooms are used to small and jam-packed environment. Yours should not be like that. Water is very essential and you need plenty of it in your school, get borehole that will supply you water at all times.

 Equip your Classrooms

Apart from the normal chairs and tables (which you can get Carpenters to do for you at a very good price) you also need to equip your classrooms with other learning aids, parents will be happier to pay when they see that your classes are properly equipped.

You need plenty of materials that are used for children’s education and Montessori. You need markers and large boards in all the classrooms, depending on the class and the children’s age.

Employ qualified Teachers

If you are the proprietor of the nursery and primary school, you do not need any formal qualifications but if you are going to be the school manager you need the minimum of Barchelor Degree and experience in Management.

Your Teachers should have minimum of B.Sc and experience in teaching or play-work. Teachers who are jovial about children are preferred.

Register your School and Kickoff

Like every other businesses, you need to register your school as a company depending on what you want.

Approach the appropriate office to register your institution.

Once you have put all these in place, the next thing is to advertise your school/institution and get down to business.