Victor Olufemi Ajulo is an education consultant of international repute, having attended a lot of seminars and conferences on education. Before venturing into education consultancy, he was into banking and financial advisory. He is a fellow of the Institute of Change Management (FICM), Fellow, Institute of Management Consultants (FIMC), FNIM, FCMA, CIHP, MFHIP and several others. He opened an inroad for Nigerians to study in Ukraine, before extending to other countries of Europe and North America. He spoke with Gbenga Aderanti.
ANYONE in the business of education consulting would know Olufemi Ajulo like the back of their hands. As the lead consultant at the Michelle and Anthony Consulting, a pioneer overseas education consultancy outfit since 2003, he is easily one of the leading players in the industry.
Recalling his foray into the business of education consultancy, Ajulo, one of the first set of consultants to take Nigerian students to Ukraine for university education, said: “I was a consultant to a company that wanted to supply Ajaokuta Steel Company billets. But when I got to Ukraine, I discovered that their education was very deep; so I started sending students to Ukraine. At that time, Ukraine had no embassy in Nigeria.”
That singular act heralded the influx of Nigerians to Ukraine in search of knowledge. This, he also said, influenced the decision of the Ukrainian government to establish an embassy in Nigeria and trigger the existing cooperation between the two countries.
With more than 20 years background in education consultancy, the chartered accountant’s background had been influential to his decision to venture into the business of ensuring that Nigerians who are willing to study abroad get quality education. This, he said, was his own way of giving back to the country.
He reckons that an agreement he signed with Kanata Academy in Canada has been highly instrumental to the huge migration of many Nigerians to the North American country.
“A lot of Nigerians have been migrating to Canada. But we don’t do the Canadian curriculum, which is not the same as the Harvey curriculum or GCE A Level or Cambridge in which you have to sit for an exam,” he said.
Accordingly, the partnership with Kanata Academy has paid off, as most parents have been saved millions of dollars that would have been paid on tuition, feeding and accommodation in Canada. Most of them, he said, would be in Nigeria doing online programmes, and within one year of studying from Nigeria, they are given domestic numbers in Canada, he said.
“The domestic number allows the student to be treated like a domestic student. So when he wants to go into the university, instead of filling the international form 201, he fills the local form 101, because the result that will be used for him or her is the Ontario secondary school diploma.
“What we are trying to offer Nigerian students is an opportunity to go there and be able to offer technological transfer.”
Ajulo believes that Nigerian employers will continue to prefer people with foreign degrees over their Nigerian counterparts as long as the government is lackadaisical about funding government schools.
“If you get a foreign degree or you go to a foreign school, the way students are taught is different. They are taught by an assignment based system; a work system that allows students to come and defend, to talk about what they have learnt.
“The average Nigerian student does not do critical thinking.”
Ajulo, however, believes the problem is surmountable.
He said: “I was a consultant with Dr. Amiel FagbuIu of blessed memory, the author of Policy Development and Nigerian Education, when he wanted to professionalise the teaching profession.
“The teaching profession should have been like Accounting in which people are chartered. The earlier we do these things, the better. And most of them can be done.
“It is only in Nigeria that qualification for teaching is lower than every other qualification, and the professional teachers have not thought that they should have a professional body– a chartered institute of teachers.”
Ajulo probably knows what he is talking about, as he has assisted in relocating and expanding the provision of an international school following the British National Curriculum, GCSE, and A level, developing university links and students’ recruitment as well as plans to establish an English Language and professional studies unit.
He is a member of YEDAB, a Turkish umbrella organisation for all education consultants. He is also a member of ICEF, study travel network, WEBA and a host of other educational and training professional bodies.
For him, good education generally does not come cheap.
He said: “I always tell people as an accountant that when there is scholarship, education is not free. The meaning of scholarship is that you were given the right to do it without pay. Other people without scholarship cannot do it. That means the government paid for you.
Ajulo believes that those who manage the ivory towers in Nigeria should be made to take courses in management.
“If they bring me now to the university to be the Vice Chancellor, they will say he is not a professor. But running an institution is all about management; it is about how you want to do things. How do you raise funds for the school? Alumni of schools abroad make a lot of money. How many of these universities are doing business in education?”
He flayed the belief in some quarters that consultants are not needed for school placement abroad. The roles of consultants are important.
He said: “A client came around and said his child wanted to do Forensic Science. I said go to the internet and search for the top forensic experts. I told the same girl to go to the internet and also pick top pharmacists, and I said it is only one year that will separate you and it is the same course that you will do and the outcome is different.
The Nation
