Spirit of Unity Schools ‘dead’–Alausa

•Decries regional dominance, rot in FGCs

From Fred Ezeh, Abuja

Federal Government Colleges (FGCs) otherwise known as Unity Schools seem to have lost much of the national integration purpose for which they were established, Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, has said, blaming the situation on insecurity, regional concentration of students, infrastructure decay, indiscipline and weak management.

Alausa said the original idea behind the schools was to bring children from different parts of Nigeria together, enabling them to live, study and grow with pupils from different ethnic, cultural and geographical backgroundsbut lamented that “changing realities” in the country had progressively weakened that objective, with records from some schools showing that students were increasingly drawn from the same part of the country.

Speaking at a meeting with journalists in Abuja recently, the Minister said the development was particularly evident in King’s College, Lagos, where, according to him, more than 60 per cent of the students were from one geographical area, a situation that is contrary to the philosophy behind the establishment of the Federal Government Colleges. “The idea of unity school is gone,” Alausa said.

He recalled a period when parents could confidently send their children from one part of the country to another without the fears that now accompany such decisions. “You could live in Lagos, but you send your son or daughter to Sokoto without fear. I will send my son or daughter to Ife. Today, you can’t boldly or confidently consider that decision because of several reasons beyond our control. You will surely be worried.”

According to the Minister, insecurity and other changes in Nigerian society have made the original model increasingly difficult to sustain, while the geographical composition of some schools no longer reflects the national character envisaged by their founders.

From national integration to regional concentrations

The Unity Schools were created to serve as melting pots where Nigerian children from different parts of the country could develop friendships and a shared national identity, but the demographic reality in some of the schools was increasingly different.

He said government records showed that students in some institutions were dominated by pupils from particular geographical areas. For the Minister, the development strongly undermine the very reason the schools were established.

He argued that government must therefore examine the admission system, management structure and broader relevance of the institutions if they are to regain their national character.

The concern, he said, is not merely where students come from, but what happens to the idea of national cohesion when children who should be meeting and learning from one another are increasingly concentrated in their own geographical communities.

The rot in King’s College

Alausa said his concerns about the broader federal secondary-school system were reinforced by what he witnessed during an inspection of King’s College, Lagos.

He described the condition of the institution as one of “total degeneration”, saying the deterioration affected virtually every aspect of the school environment..“I went to King’s College to visit about one year, eight months ago. I was weeping because of the total degeneration that i saw there.

“I went to the hostel, stench. The bathroom smelled like stench. I couldn’t even get there. Went to the dormitory. It was like a dungeon. Went to the cafeteria. The students were eating like another dungeon,”he said.

He said the classrooms were also in poor condition, with heaps of refuse allegedly littering some facilities. “I went to their classes, we inspected the classes, they were like pits, landfill pits. The laboratory was also without adequate lighting when we visited. I went to the lab at about 10 a.m it was dark. I ask the teacher, how can kids learn in this environment?”

For a school expected to train future leaders, Alausa said such an environment was unacceptable.

Truancy, indiscipline, suspected drug use

Alausa said the crisis at the schools was not restricted to physical infrastructure, but raised concerns about the conduct and welfare of some students recalling that some students he encountered during his inspection appeared unusually drowsy despite the fact that it was morning.

According to him, the appearance of some students, whom he described as unusually drowsy during the morning inspection, raised concerns about student welfare and discipline.

“I called the students, some of them, they embraced me. Some of the others were like… drowsy. The experience raised concerns about suspected drug use and indiscipline among students,” he said.

He also spoke of truancy and the inability of some school authorities to maintain the level of discipline expected in institutions charged with educating young Nigerians.

The Minister said the solution must therefore go beyond rebuilding classrooms and hostels.

Teacher welfare, student discipline, school management and the general learning environment must all be addressed.

He cited the case of a woman who, according to him, had worked as a PTA teacher for 27 years and earned only N60,000 monthly. “How much do you get paid in a month? N60,000,” he recalled asking her.

He also alleged that admission racketeering had become a problem in some public schools, claiming that admission slots were being sold for some millions of Naira or to the highest bidder even though the minister did not provide details or documentary evidence to substantiate the allegation during the briefing.

Nevertheless, the allegations were made by the minister and would require independent verification, but he cited them as evidence of the broader governance and accountability problems confronting some public schools.

Schools converted to car parks

Another incident that alarmed the Minister was the alleged conversion of part of a school compound into a commercial car park.

Dr. Alausa disclosed that during his inspection of a junior secondary school, he found about 200 vehicles parked in one part of the compound and another large number close to the gate.

He questioned why a school attended by children with an average age of 13 or 14 should be opened to unrestricted public access. “I asked, this is junior secondary school?  The teacher said yes. I said, what the average age of students here? 13, 14 years. I said, do you realise what you just done? The arrangement created unnecessary security risks for students.”

He said he ordered that the car-parking arrangement be cancelled as quickly as possible. “The incident was an example of how poor oversight could compromise the safety and integrity of public schools,” he said.

Cost of fixing the schools

The Education Minister said another major obstacle to restoring the Unity Schools was funding, stressing that the Federal Government did not have enough resources to comprehensively rehabilitate all the institutions.

“If I have N1 trillion today, it will not be enough to fix our unity schools. Even in my widest imagination, there’s no way I will get that money,” he said.

Alausa said the ministry was thus relying on available interventions and development financing to address some of the problems.

He estimated that rehabilitating Unity Schools in Lagos alone could cost about N24 billion, while repairs across the South-West could require almost N40 billion. “The figures illustrated the depth of the infrastructure crisi

“Private education system is gaining more. They are getting more students. But government has not invested in this infrastructure for decades,” he said.

Old boys offer intervention

Against this background, Alausa said old students of King’s College had offered to invest in the rehabilitation and management of the institution.

He said the old boys were not seeking to take ownership of the school or turn it into a commercial venture, but wanted to restore its infrastructure and standards.

“They want to manage the school, make some financial and human capital investments. These are accomplished people in their different fields. It’s not for profit, no increase in fee. They will bring the kids to school to the standard. They could pay the teachers more, give the kids the best education they need. Sadly, the proposal has faced opposition from some labour unions and the school’s PTA. They have mobilised for protest despite several appeals.”

Dr. Alausa insisted that the intervention should not be mistaken for privatisation, arguing that government could not afford to leave the schools to deteriorate simply because it lacked sufficient funds.

He said the experience of King’s College had forced the government to confront the wider crisis in the Unity School system. “Go to Eton College in England, they are training a pipeline of leaders. We can’t just wait, wait the way we stand as a country,” he said.

Alausa’s assessment thus suggested that the crisis of the Unity Schools is both physical and philosophical. “The schools need better infrastructure, stronger discipline, improved teacher welfare and more effective management. But they also need to recover the national character that once defined them,” he said.

The Minister recalled that his generation benefited from public schools where students from different parts of Nigeria lived and learnt together. “We had good memories. Today we can’t say that of the kids that are going to public school today, and we expect them to be good leaders.”

For Alausa, maintaining the status quo is no longer an option. “Status quo is not the solution. If we continue to do the same thing and expect to get the same result, it will never happen,” he said.

The education minister said the challenge was therefore not simply to repair classrooms, laboratories and hostels, but to rethink how the schools were managed and restore the national character for which they were established.