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Back to the IECCA building complex for day 2 of the APEN conference. Today, they did have muzak playing instead the Christian inspirational. I realized that Michael Bolton Songs don’t sound any better with saxophone in place of Mr. Bolton’s voice. Day also began with a prayer and the Nigerian National anthem--something you would not see at a US conference.

I noticed there were considerably less people in the hall at 9am, but many of them turned by my presentation at 11am. John Lobban from the South African Association did a great presentation on school governance. It may surprise some independent school parents to know that they really don't run the school, but in fact, the head and the board run the school. And it may surprise some board members that the no authority as individuals, only as a collective group.

My presentation tied to summarize the role of private and independent schools in the overall US education system. No small task. Then I moved on to explaining GYLI--no small task. Finally I concluded with the benefits and best practices of education outside the classroom. So you can all tell that this was riveting presentation.

The situation in Nigeria is that many of schools are OWNED by a "Proprietress" who runs the school as a for profit business. This of course leads to problems with governance and sustainability issues. It is interesting to note that three of these impressive black Nigerian women had hired white male south african heads of school to manage and run the operations. These schools are then taxed by the goverment as for-profit businesses. You can see the many difficulties of being a teacher or a parent in this setting to try to enact sensible reforms. On top of this the government adds regulations, inspections, and a national curriculum that schools must follow.

So the choices here are underfunded, understaffed government run schools, or single owner schools.

Say what you want about American education, but compulsory education with many choices for parents (public, private, homeschooling) is a very good combination. The other very important piece in the US is local control. Local school boards and districts have great autonomy, which is worth fighting for, as schools in Africa are dealing with national and state bureaucracy that is an obstacle to education. Independent schools and the choice to homeschool with little government involvement are great choices in the US that don't exist in here in Africa.

Stay tuned tomorrow for my report on the APEN board meeing--many of these female school owners. We will see how the debrief of the conference goes!!

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