With an average of over 100 students in a class in many of the public schools in Lagos, enrolment figures have gone burst. Infrastructure is overstretched; classrooms have become theatres of noise and confusion. EMMANUEL ONYECHE examines the undercurrents of how this trend came to be and how the perplexed and helpless teachers are straining to cope
AN announcement posted on a notice board in Lagos State Model College,
Meiran in the Agbado-Ijaiye Local Development Area listed the names of teachers that would countersign what the notice called the “dossiers” for two arms of the senior secondary school class. For the SSS One class, 13 arms –– A to M –– were listed and each arm, except SSS One L, was in duplicate. That is to say there were SSI AI, AII, BI, BII, CI, CII up to MI and MII.
The SSSII class also had 13 arms and, except for SSII D and SSII F, they were also in duplicates. The principal of the school would not speak on the enrolment figures, claiming she did not have the authority to do so as a civil servant. But several of the students and some teachers, who craved anonymity, did. One student said, “I am in JSSII B (a merger of BI and BII in one class) and we are 120.”
Another one said, “I am in SSIII A and we are 92.”
“There is no JSS or SSS class that is less than 10 arms or 90 students in one class,” a teacher said. “That is what the government wants and we have left it like that for them.”
Our correspondent, who went round the school, counted 108 students in one noisy JSS class, where a lesson was going on. Every inch of the large room was brimming with students. Chairs and tables meant for two students were shared by four. Some students were taking their notes while standing, and several others, especially those at the back, were in a world of their own, playing all sorts of pranks. The perplexed teacher, who stood in front of them, spent more time trying to gain their attention than in teaching.
“Many of the chairs and tables were bought by the parents of the students. But there are students whose parents have not provided chairs and tables. That is why you see some of them standing in the class,” another female teacher said. In some classes, the tables and chairs are so crammed together that there is no space left at all.
“In that kind of situation, a student at the back of the class, who needs to go and ease himself, would need to climb on top of chairs and tables to do so,” a teacher said.
At Vetland Junior Grammar School in Agege, the notice board indicated that, as at last Tuesday, there were a total of 2003 students. There were 630 in JSSI, 774 in JSSII and 599 in JSSIII. That meant an average of 83.4 students in a class if there were eight arms in each of JSS classes.
The boom in student population has become a constant in any equation relating to public schools in Lagos, and the conditions are the same all over. The authorities in the schools and the teachers say they are helpless concerning the situation. Many of them have got to their wits’ end striving to cope.
A teacher at Ojodu Grammar School said, “You know that there is something called bedroom voice and classroom voice. We use our classroom voices and even then, for me, I still have to shout at the top of my voice. It would have been easier if they provided us with loudspeakers, but there is nothing like that.”
A teacher at Meiran Model said, “Instead of giving them four or five assignments and homework, I give them two or one and they have to exchange their notes to mark the assignments by themselves. I cannot kill myself.”
Another female teacher at Meiran Model College said, “I use all my skills as a teacher to make sure that I have good class control. For example, I can just look back at random and anyone of them that I catch eating or drinking, I will ask them to stand up and carry whatever they were eating on the head. If it is water or ice-cream, it spills and trickles down their faces. Their mates poke fun at them. This embarrasses them and usually puts them in check.”
At the Aboru Community High School on the outskirts, a teacher said, “I am always with my cane and I flog those of them that are too stubborn like a goat. I know the students, who always cause trouble in the class. I either send then out or ask them to kneel down throughout the duration of the lesson anytime they begin their mischief.”
The entire situation is like a dream gone awry and, as it is now, it is at variance with the model vision of the state for its public schools. A teacher at Meiran Model, who attempted to trace the genesis of the problem said, “The school was established in 1988 when Mike Akhigbe was governor of Lagos. For the first five years of its establishment, no JSS or SSS class had more than five arms and no arm of a class had more than 27 students.”
What then went wrong? “We are in the era of politics and they have mixed politics with education. That marked the beginning of the problem,” the teacher said. He continued, “Students still take common entrance examinations to gain admission to Lagos State Model Colleges and those who pass very well are posted to the schools on merit. Thereafter, the rules change and it becomes a matter of whom you know at Government House, Alausa.
“Notes and phone calls keep coming from influential people in Alausa to the school authorities and there is nothing that the school authorities can do. Those in charge of admission in the schools just have to obey if they don’t want to risk losing their job.”
The widespread allegation, according to a source at Alausa, is that it costs N15,000 or more to work out an admission for a child to enter any of the six model colleges in the state.
“The amount you pay depends on where you fall in. If you know someone directly at Alausa, who does that kind of business, you pay less, maybe N10,000. But if someone has to introduce you, maybe from the school, you have to pay for the services of the middleman and in that case, you can pay as much as N20,000,” the source said.
The initial reputation of the model colleges as centres of excellent secondary school education is also a contributing factor. A teacher at Meiran Model said, “The name, ‘Model,’ still rings a bell and many parents want their children to attend model colleges at all cost. Some poor parents will spend a lot of money bribing their way for their children to attend a Model College and, after that, they are not able to buy exercise books and biros for them. It is the children of such parents that you see wearing slippers to school.”
Another teacher at the Aboru Community said, “You know that education is free in Lagos Public Schools and, because of this, many parents just concentrate on securing the admissions for their children and leave the rest to government. The authorities of the schools dare not ask the children to bring money for anything. They are helpless in this regard. Alausa prides itself on providing free education and must not hear of any levy or else the principal of that school is gone. So the school authorities have left the schools the way Alausa wants them.”
And how has all this affected standards? A teacher at the Ojodu Grammar School said, “Home works are not done. Some students use three or four notebooks for 15 subjects and, of course, many of them don’t have textbooks.”
Many of the students now depend on what the teacher called “orijo,” that is, leaked question papers, which he said they photocopy and bring the worked answers to the classrooms to copy. “What we do is that we take it from them in the exam halls, tear and throw them away. Many teachers are reluctant to follow the matter up to the extent where it will get to court because that will lead to waste of time and, besides, the students can plan and attack the teacher,” the teacher said.
What about education at the private sector level? Is it able to fill the gap? Mr Adelani Ogunseye, an accountant, who has three children in Lagos public schools, disagrees. He said, “Despite their problems, I still prefer to send my children to public schools because they have the best and most experienced teachers. This is because the job of the teachers is relatively more secure and they earn more. What you have in many private schools are disgruntled and grossly underpaid teachers, who earn pittances as salary.
“Many of them earn between N4,000 and 10,000 per month and are only there because of lack of something else to do. Take a walk round Lagos private schools, it is vacancies everywhere, teachers wanted. They actually under-educate the children. Don’t believe those excellent reports that the children bring home. The teachers doctor them for the children so that their parents can keep paying the school fees.
“Where any private school offers anything that can be regarded as good education, the parents must pay through their noses for it. They charge you for piano, development levy and all sorts of levies. Sometimes, their fees run into hundreds of thousands of naira. The kind of private school I would like my child to attend, I cannot afford it and I am an accountant and my wife is also working. Many parents have realised this and that is why they prefer to send their children to public schools.”
Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, continues to emphases the peculiar nature of Lagos among all the states in the federation. There is a great influx of people into the state, he says, adding that infrastructure for 3 million people is now being used by 18 million people.
