Principals urged to be proactive in tackling security issues in schools

By Tunde Thomas

School principals have been tasked to be proactive and innovative in tackling security issues in their schools. Making the appeal while speaking at the 34th Congress of the Lagos State chapter of the All Nigeria Confederation of  Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS) held in Lagos, an educationist, Mr Lai Bello, challenged principals of schools to go beyond the traditional method of tackling insecurity in schools.

Admitting that security challenges can no longer be treated with kid gloves, Bello urged school principals to partner with the police and community leaders in their localities, saying the government statutory allocation alone cannot address the security needs.

He said principals should establish good relation with the divisional police officers in their areas and involve old students in providing security gadgets in their schools. He also advocated use of close circuit television, alarms and other modern technological tools to secure their schools. The President of ANCOPSS, Mrs Folashade Moronkeji, in her address, tasked school principals to be smart and proactive in tackling security challenges in their schools. She listed some of the requests of the association to include rehabilitation of school, recruitment of teaching and non-teaching members of staff, provision of bus to the association, sponsorship of members of ANCOPSS to national and international conferences.

Acknowledging Lagos State government for its investment in education, she also solicited for training and retraining of teachers, restoration of teaching related allowances such as duty post allowance, science teachers allowance, rural/riverine allowances as well as financial support towards completion of the ANCOPSS permanent secretariat.

She praised the Lagos State government for the continuous recruitment of teachers to replace retiring members.