While the need to start a nursery and primary school in Nigeria is becoming the inthing as birth rates are beginning to hit the roof, the burden for good education is now brought to the front burner. A successful transition from infancy to adulthood is definitely predicated on good and sound education.

It must be said, however, that these days the penchant for formal education is seemingly beginning to take a serious decline. Nevertheless, the importance of education either formal or even informal can never be overemphasized.

It is a popular agreed truth that the development of any nation is hinged not only on financial terms but, also on human terms. This is what has resulted in the economic jargon, human capital. A prosperous nation has a rich human capital.

Such a nation is blessed with very educated and resourceful people. A huge population does not overly matter if a good number of a country’s population possesses wealth-transforming and value-inducing skills.

So, there you have it. On two counts, the matter of education at any level or form is greatly important. For the parent, educating a child equips him/her with the necessary capabilities to thrive. The gain also is felt as a nation when more and more children go to school at least up to a secondary level. Crime rates are sure to plummet and in economic terms, production and innovation rise the highest.

Away from the slight detour, the awareness of the need for schooling children has understandably coincided with the increased number of people wanting to start a nursery and primary school in Nigeria. Not just any nursery and primary schools, but, specifically the private ones. 

Reasons to Start a Nursery and Primary School in Nigeria

The public education system as a whole hasn’t covered itself with glory at all, to be very candid. It appears as though with new governments being installed, the situation keeps getting worse. One who was alive in the palmy years of the country would shudder in shock at the drastic decline in the state of nursery and primary schools owned and managed by the government.

At the time, these public nursery and primary schools were the raves of the moment, but, right now, they are the shadow of themselves. Due to continued neglect on the part of the government, structures and facilities within these public nursery and primary schools are now dilapidated. This has in so small a way given a negative perception to the general public. 

As a result of this, many parents and guardians, especially those who have the means to, now opt unashamedly for private nursery and primary schools. This is all thanks to the poor administration by sitting governments. It gets even saddening that even with the sub-standard level of education offered in some of these private schools, parents still throw caution to the wind, all because of the clout that comes with their children attending a private nursery and primary school.

Whilst we can go on lamenting about the pitiable state of these schools, some people in the shape of owners of these private schools are benefiting from the failure of the government. These people who have decided to start a nursery and primary school in Nigeria are sure to rake in huge profits on a yearly basis. Read also: Major Pros and Cons of Unitary system of government

This has culminated in the fact that the cheapest nursery and primary schools in Lagos bill parents at least seven thousand Naira per term for tuition fees. Worthy of note, that many of the parents who enroll their children in these schools are struggling to make ends meet.

As you go higher up the economic strata, some private schools charge thirty thousand Naira on an average and in crème de la crème schools, the fees go as high as nearly a hundred and eighty thousand each term. All of these resources are put away for a little child to learn the English alphabet.

Those who are on course to start a nursery and primary school in Nigeria would look at these mouth-watering figures, and their mouths left agape at the insane value of this market, considering the fact that the more number of pupils you can get enrolled in your school the higher your chances of amassing massive profits. 

Well, the numbers look good and inviting, however, it would be great if those who want to start a nursery and primary school in Nigeria are also are consumed with the desire of churning out brilliant pupils that can be world-beaters because, at the end of the day, no one would pay so much for what has little or no value and of course, it would be cruelty to offer little after being paid so much.

Steps to Start a Nursery and Primary School in Nigeria

Every profitable venture demands a sizeable investment. The desire to start a private nursery and primary school that is private for whatever reason isn’t enough. You just simply can not wake up on a beautiful morning and wish for a private school, and viola, it appears! There are certain requirements that must be fulfilled to turn such dreams into reality. They include:

Get a Location

The value you are offering is equally as important as the environment you would be dishing out this value from. In other words, you would want to take ownership of the variables within your control and that includes the location.

If you are keen to start a nursery and primary school in Nigeria, you must first consider your pocket. Do you have enough to buy land of your own? Or is what you have quite small, but, enough to rent a place? 

Definitely, having your personal space trumps any other option, that is because you would get to save up, but, the most important thing would be: Is your environment compelling enough to draw parents to the location of your school. Would the place prove to be an excellent learning environment? Above all, is the location reasonably safe?

Even though the above-mentioned cities are high-profile regions in the country, it is pertinent still that as someone who is interested to start a nursery and primary school in Nigeria, you don’t purchase land in places that are far off from the typical residential buildings as this can certainly put parents off.

Parents not only prefer it when the location of their children’s school is in an easily accessible place but, also where is closer to home. 

Nonetheless, if you are buoyant to get land, the cost of getting land in the developing areas of cities in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja, or even Ibadan ranges from between eight hundred thousand Naira to about two million, four hundred thousand Naira. 

You just may be wondering what really can be the size of the land for a start, well, at least a 120 by 60 is perfect to contain the building itself and other important structures.

Read also: Land sizes in Nigeria: Plots, Acres, Hectares, and Square meters explained

Build if You Have Bought a Land

Developing a structure can be very cheap when placed side-by-side with the option of constantly paying rent in a place that isn’t yours. However, building a school from the scratch can be quite daunting. The costs most of the time are relative.  It all depends on the extent, size, and even quality of the structure you want the school to look like when it is completed.

Now, at this stage, many people who want to start a nursery and primary school in Nigeria can be torn between going all out to have a standard structure and just building anything as long as pupils can be taught there.

The truth always remains that first impression matters. As a prospective school proprietor, you should consider putting your best foot forward. Don’t excessively try to cut costs. Have a sit down with the engineer in charge and determine the best quality for your school. Quality doesn’t always mean expensive.

With that in mind, you also would want to ensure that there is enough space for the children to move about. Remember, it is a nursery and primary school, with the age bracket of 0-9 being involved.

Parents certainly can get over a prim and proper environment. They wouldn’t take their children home down with some illness or the other. To this end, having an hygenic borehole system must be a priority. In fact, if it is possible, purchase lands where you are certain of getting steady clean water.

Asides from that, not just should their classrooms be roomy, but other places they would stay like their play areas and restrooms should be spacious enough to contain the excesses of these young children.

Stock and Beautify Classrooms

Generally, in this part of the world, many people tend to downplay the power of aesthetics. When you try to get deliberate with the colours around you, as you start a nursery and primary school in Nigeria, you are perceived as unnecessarily too conscious of details.

This is such a parochial mindset because researchers have proven the beneficial effects of the right blend of colours on the natural mind. If you can get the colour mix right, as someone who wants to start a nursery and primary school in Nigeria, you not only cast an attractive appeal to your school but also integrate that therapeutic component to learning which has always been underestimated.

Definitely, you would need to contract a carpenter to give you the best of children’s furniture or better still go the plastic route. Whichever works for you, it is fine, as long as the children and their instructors get comfortable chairs and tables that can create an excellent learning environment.

Since you want to start a nursery and primary school in Nigeria first, comfy chairs and tables simply won’t do. The following facilities should be made available:

Boards preferably, white boards.

Shelves for books.

Television sets.

Swings for recreation.

Games for extracurriculars.

Markers.

Chalks.

Microphones.

Learning aids like charts.

First aid kits in the event of a medical emergency.

Microphones.

Books and stationary.

Inclusively, you would need clean toilets and bathrooms. Children can get messy and you wouldn’t want them returning to their parents down with one infection or the other.

This is why as someone to start a nursery and primary school in Nigeria, a portable water system is a given so that there can be a constant water supply for maintenance of good hygiene. In the big picture, having all of these facilities would enhance learning and retention. 

Get Your School Registered

There are many schools of thought on when you should get your school registered and approved. Well, first things first, to start a nursery and primary school in Nigeria as a profit-based business and like every other business, you would need to be registered by the Corporate Affairs Commission and then afterward approved by the State’s Ministry of Education board.

So, we can quip that registration should start as soon as you are certain to start a nursery and primary school in Nigeria and the approval comes when you are done with the building.

Before you can think of registering under the CAC, you want to make sure you have a name unique to you alone. This is so because you can forestall the event of someone else using that name. To do this, you can simply log in to the CAC website and find out if the name you have in mind has been taken by another person.

As soon as you are clear no one has taken the name, you would proceed to conduct an official online search which costs five hundred Naira. The portal would earmark that name for a period of ninety days.

Having completed this step, you are advised to formally apply either online or physically at the CAC office for the registration of that name you selected should serve as the name of your school.

At this stage, you would be required to complete a form that reels out a list of relevant information ranging from the proposed name of the school to the address and aims of the school. The forms differ when the school is to be registered as a private limited company. If this case, you would be needing to state the authorized share capital of the school.

Once you are done with the completion of these forms, it would be required you to submit the forms with a particular submission fee that varies from state to state. With this done, you would then have to wait for a reply from the Corporate Affairs Commission.

As soon as the registration process is deemed successful, you would be handed what is called a certificate of incorporation and a certain form known as CAC/BN/1. This confers upon your school the seal of registration by the CAC. And, if your school was registered as a public limited company, you would be granted a certificate of incorporation and also a form known as CAC 1.1, a memorandum, and an article of association which you can hand over to the board of directors.

As it was earlier stated, this registration process is different from the approval procedure. This should be ideally done when you are finished building every relevant structure a nursery and primary school should have.

The approval procedure is always initiated by an inspection for representatives from the state’s ministry of education. During this time of inspection, the government officials would scrupulously check for the facilities within the school ranging from the toilets to the classrooms and other offices.

At this time, there also should be a submission of the approval forms to the ministry of education in that state. Ideally, the representatives come for two inspections. The first was to take care of the structures and the second one would be to check the curriculum and every other teaching resource from the textbooks to lesson aids and whatnot the government released as guidelines for the academic development of the pupils.

As soon as the ministry is fine with the two inspections carried out and your school is deemed worthy of handling the educational demands of pupils, an approval certificate would be handed over to you. This not only certifies you as government standard but, also, you are given the green light to start academic activities as soon as you can.

It is worthy of mention that in all these processes, you may require the services of a good lawyer, especially in the choice of the school name at the CAC office. Also, in the forms you were asked to fill in, certain information you will need to input may demand legal interpretation. 

Design an Attractive School Wear

The ambiance of the school environment not only serves as a boost to the interest in your school by parents and guardians, but the school wear can also make a case for you if they are beautifully sown. As it is popularly said, the way you dress determines just how you will be addressed.

Parents and guardians would certainly not want their children and wards appearing in ridiculous wear all in the name of school uniform.

To start a nursery and primary school in Nigeria, you should do your due diligence and get in touch with a tailor or seamstress that can give you something that is unique. Again, the best doesn’t have to be expensive.

There are designers who would give you very nicely fitting school wears for the children without you having to break the bank as you would have thought. These designers should not only be able to sew beautiful dresses but also they should have a wonderful sense of color and style.

Employ The Right Staff

Without any iota of doubt, you can’t successfully start a nursery and primary school in Nigeria without having a team or better put, dedicated staff who are willing to go above and beyond to ensure only the best is associated with your school.

There are different roles and responsibilities that are absolutely needed to successfully start a nursery and primary school in Nigeria. You sure would need:

Qualified teachers.

Good security guards.

Hardworking cleaners.

Amiable receptionist.

Excellent librarian.

Dedicated secretary.

Trustworthy supervisor (if the need be).

Dependable accountant. 

Careful bus driver (if your school begins with a school bus for school runs)

Wonderful cook (if the children’s meals would be taken care of by the school)

To be quite honest, it isn’t exactly feasible for someone to start a nursery and primary school in Nigeria with all these roles filled at once in the early days. However, a visionary proprietor would plan for these various people as the numbers grow. In the meantime, as a minimum requirement to successfully start a nursery and primary school in Nigeria, you need teachers, qualified ones at that. 

It is true that the number of teachers you would begin with would have to increase as more children are enrolled, yet, this does not mean the first set of teachers you employ should be unqualified.

The teachers should have the minimum qualification of an NCE, though this doesn’t stop you from hiring BSc or even MSc holders if you can pay them. Nonetheless, you should know, at least, if you get the best hands, you sure would increase the value you offer and by implication, the tuition fees would rise too.

In the end, it is a win-win situation for you as the owner and the parents because parents are much more likely to take their children to nursery and primary schools that have capable hands in terms of teachers. 

Moreover, having the academic qualifications for teachers is certainly not enough. The teachers you bring to your school should be sound on morals. In fact, every staff should, and that includes the bus drivers, security personnel, and cleaners.

Children of nursery and primary ages can easily learn from what they see around them, and, since they will be spending more time with these staff, it only is reasonable that as someone who wishes to start a nursery and primary school in Nigeria, you are to be conscious of which kind of persons your staff truly are. Because in the event of any mishap whatsoever, doom is just imminent for your school.

Also, you might need to put into consideration children who come from distant locations and those whose parents or guardians are so occupied that are incapable of doing school runs.

To take care of this situation, a school bus should be available and of course, should be driven by a good bus driver who would not put the children in harm’s way with dangerous driving.

The bus driver should be timely as well to take the children from their homes to school and from school back home. 

Security is another matter that should not be taken lightly when you start a nursery and primary school in Nigeria. You see, parents are trusting you with not just with proper education of their wards but also their security. This is why a well-trained security guard should be employed.

With someone manning the gates, the security risks should simmer down and be well contained. And, to regularly keep the school environment as hygienic as possible, hardworking cleaners should be added to your payroll too.

Select a Workable Academic Curriculum

The choice of the perfect academic curriculum should be informed by what future you want the children enrolled to have. Is it an entirely focused academic future or do you want them to be flexible in their respective disciplines allowing the children to develop all-around? Nevertheless, which ever you decide as someone starting a private nursery and primary school is hinged on some factors. 

First, in the choice of an academic curriculum, we know that parents in this part of the world prioritize the results their children turn in at the end of each term. In lieu of that, as one who is starting a private nursery and primary school, you might want to integrate thorough academic work.

However, if we follow the trajectory the entire world is going, having a child who knows just academic work can be counterproductive. Since the pandemic, attention has shifted to soft skills, to successfully start a private nursery and primary school in Nigeria, you certainly would want the children at least to know how to do basic things on a computer system right before they transition into a secondary school.

Again, a quick look at the political terrain in the nation is enough to give instant worries for the young children being born. Regardless, to start a nursery and primary school in Nigeria, you have the rare opportunity of changing the state of affairs.

At nursery and primary ages, the brains of children are very malleable and can take in any information presented to them on a regular basis. How about the inclusion of nation-building and peacemaking skills in their curriculum at this nascent age? 

Also to start a nursery and primary school in Nigeria, you must recognize that nursery and primary education serve as a building block for secondary and tertiary education. Whatever is allowed into the curriculum should be very adequate to furnishing children with the right knowledge so that they aren’t left struggling as they advance in their education.

With a perfect understanding of these factors, the onus is on you to choose from either the British or American curriculum or even outside these popular two adopted by many nursery and primary schools in the country. By the way, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to sample opinions from the parents or guardians as they are important stakeholders in this too.

Adopt an Inspiring Motto

In the first place as someone who wants to start a nursery and primary school in nigeria, asides from the desire to make money, the educational side of things should be dear to your heart too. You must have a target you expect the children who enroll in your school to meet when they graduate.

This should be what spurs you on to go all the way to better the school in every sense. One way to definitely keep this in focus would be to create a motto around it so that you are reminded of this target when things tend to go south. 

It turns out that a motto is not only beneficial to you the properietor but, also to the parents. A motto in the clearest terms conveys your purpose of existence to the parents. The motto in this way bolsters the confidence in parents as they are assured their children or wards are in safe hands.

Get a Logo

Every business needs an appealing logo for brand advertisement. Starting a private nursery and primary school should not be any different. If you desire an increased appeal to the value you claim to offer, one way to do this is to have a beautiful logo that is not only unique but is scalable in the long term when competition gets stiffer. This and many more is what contracting an excellent graphic designer gives you.

Customize Note Books

Business as they say is a game of numbers. If you can broaden your reach, you are guaranteed to make larger profits. This is why to start a nursery and primary school in Nigeria, you shouldn’t think twice on exploiting the possible means of increasing your visibility as a brand. One of the many ways you can do this is printing your own exercise books. 

These exercise books convey very vital information such as your school’s name, logo, motto, location address, contact information and if available, social media platforms. At the start, as an owner you can give these exercise books for free or at massively discounted prices to the first set of pupils enrolled in your school, and of course, subsequently, they should be sold. These exercise books would help the children take notes in class, handle classwork, assignment and other modes of assessment. 

As your school in the long terms, begins to have better numbers in students’population, you can make good money from the sale of these branded school books since the children would be needing these books either at the beginning of an academic session or even per term.

Conclusion

We can’t stress enough how profitable it is to start nursery and primary school in Nigeria. Nonetheless, as it is widely accepted, nothing good comes cheap. Same applies to here, you would have to, for a moment as a school owner, try not to be overly ambitious with making so much money in the early beginnings.

In fact, you might be running at a loss with debts here and there to settle. Nonetheless, you should keep still need keep your chin up, because better days surely would arrive if you refuse to give in.

Additionally, even in the long term, to successfully start a nursery and primary school in Nigeria, you need to see beyond wanting to reap dividends of your hard earned investment, and while it is well within your right to have such expectations, you need to understand how critical your business is to national development. You have such a rare opportunity to play a role in deciding what kind of future leaders would take the scene in various spheres of influence.

Therefore, in one hand as you seek earnestly to balance the books, on the other hand, ensure you aren’t doing a huge disservice to our great nation by just leaving the pupils who their parents and guardians have entrusted in your hands to become the very best they can.

This means you would actively pursue the welfare of your students at every cost possible and that includes doing all that this article has recommended and even more.