Extra sources of income for schools.

Education is a noble profession, no doubt. But we cannot deny that teaching is one of the most underpaid and somewhat thankless jobs. I once went for an interview where the interviewer asked me "What is a young, well-spoken girl like you doing in the classroom?" She just could not fathom that I had chosen the career suicide that is teaching. To be fair, she had a point. The salary I was offered as a Master's degree holder was a slap on the face of everyone who had laboured to put me through school. Many of my classmates who also studied education have left the path to find a more rewarding profession.

It will be easy to advocate for higher pay for teachers, but as someone who has worked in higher levels of education, I can say that it is not that easy. Unlike every other commodity affected by inflation, schools cannot afford to indiscriminately hike their fees. Recovering fees from owing families is one losing battle almost every school is fighting. The bid to retain students while raising fees to meet the cost of operations is a vicious cycle. This is where innovation comes in and schools diversify means of income to meet costs of running and also hire and retain the best professionals.

During my Master's in Educational Administration program at the University of Lagos, one of the important things we were taught is diversification of income streams for schools. If no one else needs this, Nigerian schools do. These are steps you can implement at the start of the new academic session to earn more money for your school:

1. Rent out your facilities: an investment in standardising your school hall, car park or any existing sports facilities you may have can earn you a substantial weekly income. If there is one thing you can be sure of, it is that in Africa, there will always be events. So, touch up your facilities and start advertising!
2. After-school lesson: I once worked in a school that opened up its after-school lessons to students in all the schools in that area. They would go to the schools, pick up the children from their schools and drop them off at home after lessons. This was helpful for busy parents and the school earned a lot of money doing that.
3. Resell old items: You can ask alumni to donate their textbooks and uniforms back to the school. That way you can run a second hand shop for parents that want to buy these things for cheap and the school makes money.
4. Saturday clubs: Does your school have a thriving music, arts or sports club? You can extend it to the general public on weekends. This will give volunteering staff the opportunity to earn more.
5. Sell Tickets: I know a lot of schools rely heavily on donations for special events. It will help to know that a lot of schools sell tickets for school events. No matter how little, charging a gate fee will help raise money for the school.
6. Alumni association: A lot of schools are doing very poorly when it comes to keeping in touch with their alumni. Alumni are a very important resource for every school and can be a source of donations for schools.
7. Partnerships: For school events, not everything has to be done with money. Find out the parents who have businesses that can benefit from the exposure of a school event and partner with them. Don't be afraid to write letters to the parents who run food, drinks, books or toy businesses and ask for that partnership/sponsorship.
8. Participate in competitions: numerous competitions can be participated in physically and virtually with rewards for schools. Engaging your students in these competitions have both economic rewards for schools and exposure. It's a double win.

This list is not exhaustive but hopefully, it is helpful. Need any more help? Reach out to me.