Mr Mark Brooks, Chief Executive Officer, Mark Brooks Education has said that no fewer than 70 Nigerians are recruited into the UK boarding schools annually.
Brooks spoke in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the exhibition of eight UK boarding schools in Abuja on Monday.
He said that the exhibition was a way to help Nigerians find outstanding boarding schools in the UK so that their children and wards could have qualitative education.
“We have been coming to Nigeria since the last 16 years to help families in Nigeria find places with outstanding British boarding schools across the UK.
“We are here to develop partnerships with schools in Nigeria, bring teacher training. They are schools for students in Nigeria joining A’ Levels and also giving foundation programmes.
“We have many fantastic schools in Nigeria but we are here to give places for foundation preparation for universities. UK boarding schools offer all round opportunities to thrive in sports, co-curricular activities, training in medical schools, STEM and science, accounts and business,” Brooks said.
He said his organization was not in the country to say it was the best of Nigerian schools but their schools were the alternatives people were looking for.
“We recruit about 70 students annually to join UK boarding schools and now have 1500 Nigerian students in the last 16 years,” Brooks said.
He explained that the UK schools have contributed in the areas of partnership with schools and businesses in Nigeria, develop the students and use their skills to continue in the transformation of the country.
“We have heard a fantastic response from parents, so we are here to recruit Nigerian students for UK boarding schools with skills in academic, music, sports.
“The UK boarding schools support values and morals, support the morals and faith of Christians and Muslims so Nigerians have no cause to fear,” Brooks
added.
Also, the Abuja representative of Mark Brooks Education, Ijeoma Uwakwe-Okoronkwo, said the exhibition was a
sensitisation programme for parents on the current pathways into UK boarding schools.
“Sometimes, people are misguided so the exhibition is to give you the correct pathways to opportunities that would meet the needs of students especially in the area of quality education.
“And from the students, they can navigate on the right way to follow in tertiary education.
“Thankfully for these eight top schools that are here, they have a lot of Nigerian students and we in Nigeria, we carry our culture with us in those schools,” Uwakwe – Okoronkwo said.
She said they had Nigerians who were head girls and head boys and this had been a recurring situation and it indicated that they valued themselves and their culture anywhere they found themselves.
A parent, Mr Emmaneul Piegbe said that he had come to choose a UK school with the intention of giving his children quality education.
When asked why he prefers to choose UK schools over Nigerian schools, Piegbe said the quality and moral values in UK education encouraged him into getting such education.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event was organised by Mark Brooks Education, in association with the UK’s Department for Business and Trade.
The schools are, Cardiff Sixth Form College, Freemen’s School, Earlscliffe College, Lancing College, LVS Ascot, Marymount International School London, Queen Ethelburga’s and St Clare’s Oxford. (NAN)