*Leke Adepoju.
Education enjoys special attention, especially with Federal Government (FG) of Nigeria. It is tax free for private organizations that are rendering the service in the country.
Any material used in the provision of education is also tax free. The purpose of doing that is to ensure education is affordable at all levels. FG’s intervention in the provision of secondary school education is primarily to set the standard in qualitative education. These schools are popularly known as Unity Schools.
King’s College is one of, if not, the leading secondary school in the country. It has a long history of providing qualitative education and a robust list of successful alumni. The school was a class in itself, attracting pupils from well-to-do families around the country. After Independence, just like every other things handed over by the Colonial Administration, the school’s standard started deteriorating as its prestige gradually eroding away. No alumni will fold its arms and allow its alma mater goes into the abyss of substandard.
The school was established by the Colonial administration (Lagos Colony) as a secular school for people of all faiths to acquire knowledge. Its location had made Federal Government (FG) to absorb it at Independence. Twenty years after, another model college was established in Ibadan called Government College Ibadan (GCI), which is run in partnership between Oyo State Government and Government College Ibadan Old Boys Association (GCIOBA) to maintain the standard. You may call it concession. The idea (concession) actually started during Colonial Administration, where government partnered the founders(religious bodies) of most schools during colonial period. How it had worked? Administration of the schools had been left in the hands of founders and government provided facilities which necessitated recruitment of more teachers and payment of their salary. This was to ensure the common men could afford to educate their wards in those missionary schools. So, concession of school is where the interest of government meets that of the founder or Old Student Association to refertilize the falling standard of a school.
King’s College is a privileged school that benefited from three fronts(government subvention, Parents Teachers Association and Old Boys Association regular support). Instead of making the best use of this opportunity, the management abused the privilege. There are many factors that contributed to the falling standard of the school such as poor management, absenteeism, nonchalant attitude of both teaching and non-teaching staff, lack of coordination from the education authority at the center, compromised admission process and societal decadence.
The management was self-centered and only after what they will gain, after their intense lobbying to get posted to the school. The school has the highest number of teaching staff amongst the Unity Schools in the country. This gave room for staff to make all sorts of excuses to be absent from the school. And those who reported at work show poor attitude to work, saying “someone’s child can’t kill another person’s father”. Admission into the school is for the highest bidder. The cutoff point for admission was deliberately hyped to limit the number of merit. Pupils who do not have academic requisites, will definitely become nuisance disturbing the school. The main problem is little or lack of supervision by the education authority. Those on a routine supervision rarely do diligent work because of the handout from the school management and when they give a sincere report, their superiors often brush aside such report. The rot in the society is not rearing its ugly face anymore, it is materializing itself everywhere.
A prestigious school has been reduced to a shadow of itself. Management of the school was getting worse year after year despite numerous efforts made by the Old Boys to salvage the situation. The Old Boys later realized that taking over the management of the school is the best approach to take the school back to its glory days. A model school which ought to set the pace for others, is now taking a cue from others.
The Old Boys came up with a plan and presented it to the Ministry, which thoroughly perused the plan and approved it. Although the timing may be considered inappropriate, the plan ought to have been implemented a long time ago. With the concession in place, the management of the school is now ceded to the Old Boys Association. The staff is answerable to the new management, while Federal Government continues to pay their salary.
Whenever there is a push for positive change, there must be resistance from those who are benefiting from the status quo. All Unity Schools are shut down by the Staff Union in connivance with the management of those schools in solidarity with Kings College management. The hardworking staff have nothing to fear from the new arrangement, because there will be rewards for their labour. Both permanent and ad-hoc staff are protected, no layoff or retrenchment.
The new management (Old Boys) is not interested in making profit but in revamping the dilapidated structures. So, there will be no tuition fee as it is in other Unity Schools. All these are known to the union leaders, who are solidarizing with the removed management staff.
King’s College as it was before the concession, it was the most expensive amongst the Unity Schools in the country with no differential in value. The new arrangement will ensure value is given in return for every penny. In other words, money collected will be spent judiciously. Parents need not fear an increase in school fees because the school is in capable hands, whose sole interest is to raise the standard and ensure qualitative education.
The Old Boys Association is not a profit-making organization and will rather support the school financially. As for the teachers in other Unity Schools, there is no cause for alarm because the other schools are far from attaining the same status as King’s College.