Lagos is not just the most populous state in Nigeria; it is the economic nerve centre of the country. At its disposal is a humongous Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) when compared with what other sub-nationals in Nigeria generate as IGR. Despite its IGR, Lagos State government is still grappling with providing basic infrastructure across the state, including adequate schools for its teeming populace, with many Lagos residents preferring to send their children to private primary and secondary schools even as many of the schools are operating illegally since they are not approved by the state government. GBENGA SALAU reports on the implications and dangers of government allowing these unapproved schools, estimated at over 12,000, to continue to thrive.

Ade Kindergarten School on Sikiru Alimi Street, Off Ogunlana Road, Ijeshatedo is one of the many private schools in Lagos State. Like many of its kind, majority of the teachers are not qualified to teach. The school is housed in a rented residential apartment of just a room with other pupils not accommodated within the one room staying outside to learn.

The school lacks and did not meet up with the basic requirements that the state government set for a school in Lagos to be operational. Yet, the school has been in operation for some years now.

Ade Kindergarten School is not the only one. There is also God’s Time Daycare, Nursery and Primary School, Isheri. It is a church hall that serves dual purpose of classrooms for learning and teaching from Monday to Friday when schools are in session and religious centre on worship days. This is despite the church hall is built partially with tarpaulin and chalkboards serving as class demarcation during school hours. There is also Samtos Height School, Agboju, with dilapidated structures. The school, however, recently repainted its fence to give it some good outward look. Another of such school is Joyful Land Nursery and Primary School, Esther Ibekwe Street, Off Jakande Estate. Part of the residential building of the proprietress is what has been converted to classrooms. The compound, which was once grassy and swampy, is now gradually being filled with red clay though the area still gets flooded during rainy season.

Joining the list is Vindeb Private School, Anthony Street, in Aiyetoro area of Ijanikin, which operates from a wooden structure being used as classrooms. There is another school not far Vindeb Private School called The Elect Nursery and Primary School, which uses the boys’ quarters of one of the main buildings on Komolafe Street as the school building.

So, from Agege to Lagos Island, Oshodi-Isolo to Kosofe, Ikorodu, Badagry, Ajeromi-Ifelodun and Ojo, unapproved schools that are not conducive for learning with some of them having rundown structures are not in short supply.

A testimony to this is the revelation last week by the state Commissioner for Basic and Secondary School Education, Mr. Jamiu Alli-Balogun, that over 12,000 schools in Lagos State are operating without approval.

The findings by The Guardian also showed that majority of these illegal schools have been operating for years without the state government taking any measures to halt their activities, with new ones springing up almost every new academic session. And it is not that the unregistered schools are in the minority, as the state government disclosed that only 5622 schools in the state have the authority to operate.

This implies that those unapproved, put at above 12,000 are over 100 per cent higher than those approved by government to educate pupils and students in the state. It was observed that in some of these unregistered schools, the operating environment is not fit for animals, yet they are being used as schools, while some others are mini-religious halls that lack basic safety measures, including windows for proper ventilation.

Some stakeholders argued that government poor planning in terms of not moving along with the state’s rapid development as well as poor regulatory oversight by the Office of Education Quality Assurance are two critical issues these illegal schools are multiplying with many remaining unapproved for decades.

Speaking on the growing unregistered schools in Lagos, the Executive Director, Glowing Splints Development Initiative and Lagos State Coordinator, Civil Society Action Coalition on Education For All (CSACEFA), Stella Olubunmi Francis, noted that a lot of unapproved schools are low-cost schools, springing up in all nooks and crannies of the state to fill the gaps created by the non availability of government public schools in some communities.

She added that there are many communities that do not have the presence of public primary schools and a lot of parents may not be able to register their children too far away from their homes, so they make do with the low-cost schools in their vicinities.

Also commenting, Programme Manager, Human Development Initiatives (HDI), Dr Johnson Ibidapo, stated that many of the unapproved schools provide some quick fix solutions for parents unable to meet up with the criteria of registering their children in government schools, and government approved private schools.

He further said: “Some of these schools actually offer what is called daily payment. Maybe, some parents who have been frustrated from trying to get their children into government schools, turn into such schools rather than keeping the children at home.

“So, such schools actually provide a quick fix despite having disadvantages such as security reasons, compromise of policy, quality among others,” Ibidapo said.

Yet, by virtue of section 2(1) of the Compulsory, Free Universal Basic Education Act, law of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, the government is legally obligated to provide free, compulsory and universal basic education for every Nigerian child of primary and junior secondary school age. In spite of this provision, access to education is made cumbersome with enrollment criteria.

On if enrollment policies into government owned schools contribute to the high number of illegal schools in Lagos, Francis observed that in places where there are public schools, the requirements of tax clearance certificates and Lagos State Identity card provided by Lagos State Residents Registration Agency (LASRRA) for registration into public schools are barriers, leading to a lot of parents patronising these unregistered schools.

“Of course, if there is a demand for these schools, there will definitely be a supply. Moreover, the government acknowledges the fact that they are not capable of providing adequate educational facilities to the teeming population of pupils and students and therefore turn their focus away from these low-cost schools.

“In addition, if you are transferring your child or ward from a private school or from another state to a government public school, you may be required to pay a fee, which some parents may not be able to afford. The only occasion where these requirements are waived is when a child is enrolled under Project Zero.”

On his part, Ibidapo stated that government new policy on enrollment may have further aided parents taking their wards to such schools.

“Before now, it was possible to enroll a child with tax certificate that is not yours, but not anymore. Only tax clearance certificate of the parents of the children wanting to be enrolled in schools would be presented, meaning those who had relied on the tax clearance certificate of their extended family members, neighbors, their friends, and well wishers can no longer do that.

“So, what does this mean? It means that the children will stay out of school. In order not to continue to stay out of school, the parents will have to look for alternatives and this is why they turn to some of these unapproved schools,” Ibidapo stated.

Some of these Illegal schools have been in operation for more than a decade, yet the state government has definite criteria that private schools must meet before starting out. This is aside the state government has a policing agency, the Office of the Education Quality Assurance saddled with the responsibilities of approving and monitoring activities of schools in Lagos State, including private schools. Despite these two provisions, the state is burdened with soaring illegal schools.

In its revised document on guidelines for public and private schools in the state in 2016, the checklist for school approval stated that building structure must be purpose built/restructured to suit purpose with an approved building plan or rented building with at least five years lease agreement.

The document added that aside from a certificate of occupancy, the school must not be situated within 500 meters radius from another, with the minimum land requirement for nursery and primary schools shall be one plot of 60 by 120.

“The building and premises shall be certified as suitable by the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development.”

It further said that the school shall have a minimum of five special rooms; library, sick bay, a functional ICT room with equipment, a science laboratory, and head teacher’s office. There will also be nine classrooms and a sizeable multi-purpose hall that can be used for indoor games.

The state government added that a maximum of 25 pupils in nursery section with one adult to eight pupils, one qualified teacher along with a teaching assistant and 35 with two adults, at least one professionally qualified teacher and an assistant in primary section.

The government further said that the minimum dimensions of each classroom shall be 2.4m (height) x 8.4m (length) x 6.8m (width) while a standard classroom should provide an average floor two space of 1.2m or metre square per student.

“Every class should have a well-resourced reading corner. All classrooms shall be well lit and ventilated and shall normally have two doors and four windows.”

It also stated that academically and professionally head teacher and qualified teachers in all classes with teaching assistants in all nursery classes.

The state government added that six toilets indicating clear signs for male and female toilets, just as certificates of medical fitness of food vendors while portable water and wash hand basins in strategic places in the school.

“There shall be demarcated white, sharp sand filled playground or playground with artificial grass carpet, along with outdoor learning resources provision for nursery classes.”

The school is also required to provide one general and one electrical functional fire extinguisher, as well as four sand buckets in strategic areas in the building, with safety signs and instructions affixed on the school walls.

The state government expects the painting of all the inner classes and corridors in bright colours with beautiful display boards including the fence and natural/potted assorted beautiful flowers.

On the other hand, some of the duties and responsibilities of the Office of Education Quality Assurance provided on its website include, monitoring and ensuring standards in all schools below tertiary level; accreditation of schools for external examinations; establishment of database of both public and private school below tertiary level in the state which shall include all reports of assessments, grading, quality assurance evaluation of public and private education institutions including the review and amendment of the school curriculum in collaboration of all stakeholders; production of annual state of education report, investigation of all matter affecting learners and staff of educational institutions, ensuring that every child in school receives qualitative education through collaboration with other stakeholders.

Despite the OEQA duties is to maintained standard and monitor activities of private schools, the Registrar/ Chief Executive of Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), Professor Josiah Ajiboye, recently said that based on a survey carried out by a consultant working with the TRCN, over 70 per cent of teachers in private schools in the South-West including Lagos are not qualified to be registered with TRCN.

“Whereas a large percentage of teachers in public schools are qualified and have registered with TRCN, the same cannot be said of teachers in private schools.

“The TRCN has focused on mobilisation of teachers in private schools to first get qualified by registering for Postgraduate Diploma in Education or Professional Diploma in Education as the case may be, to make them registerable with TRCN so that they can be certified.”

He also called on states to vet the list of teachers before registering new schools, demanding that state governments before registering these private schools should ask that they make available the list of their teachers as part of the conditions for registration to be sure they are qualified, registered and licensed.

Ajiboye noted that some private school owners promote quackery in teaching to maximise profit.

“They employ just anyone and unleash them on our children. We have been having discussions with private school owners to discourage such practices.  Yes, indeed, government alone cannot provide education to the teeming population of Nigerian children, private participation is a welcome development.

“However, the commercialisation of education must be discouraged. Competent and qualified teachers are sine qua non to quality education.”

To Francis, that these unapproved schools remain operational for years after setting up is rather unfortunate, despite there are requirement for schools to operate and a regulatory agency, whose primary task is to check the activities of illegal schools.

She added that the regulatory agency seems to be paying more attention to the big private schools which are able to pay the government some form of taxes and levies.

“Moreover, these low cost schools are not willing to pick up forms to become legalised because of the amount involved in getting legalised. The Ministry of Basic Education does not seem to have the capacity to carry out the monitoring of the huge number of schools, bearing in mind that the ministry has not been able to adequately monitor the 1020 public primary schools and about 650 public secondary schools.”

Also speaking on why some of the illegal schools have continued to operate for decades, Ibidapo argued that such schools have been able to survive because they have colluded with insiders in the ministry of education and regulatory agencies responsible for approving such schools.

“Under normal circumstances, we wonder why some of these schools are still surviving. Some of them have endured the test of time, some have been around for more than ten years and they are not approved by government. You cannot remove the place of corruption. Some of the school owners are highly well connected to people in government,” Ibidapo observed.

With poor learning environment, not keeping to standard and employment of unqualified teachers, no doubt, there are consequences for having these unapproved schools around.

Airing her view on the negative implications of having such huge number of illegal schools in Lagos to learning and the total formation of the child, Francis said that in as much as the learning environment may not be so conducive and the quality of teaching and learning may not be so qualitative, these children still get to learn to a large extent, which helps in reducing the rate of out-of-school children in the communities.

“Until such a time when government is able to adequately cater for the education of every Nigerian child, we may have to accommodate these schools. The alternative is for government to ensure that standards are kept in these schools irrespective of the fact that they are low cost,” Francis stated.

For Ibidapo, the negative implications of having such high illegal schools in the state are several and diverse. “For instance, high mortality rate because so many children lose their lives in these unregistered and unapproved schools, because of the unhygienic environment. I think the Itafaji School incident is still very fresh in our memories. Apart from that, you also have compromise of the quality of education.

“Generally, is it not a wonder now that we have graduates who can’t even spell their names correctly, it’s sad but it’s a reality. There’s a compromise in the quality of education. Also, many of these schools also encourage corruption, what you call miracle centres, and special centres. All these happen in the so called private schools, which you won’t be surprised that they are not approved by government.

“All types of child abuses prevail in some of these schools, and then the issue of compromise in the quality of education because you have unqualified teachers and there’s no way you can separate qualified teachers who are passionate about their jobs from high performing students or the achievement of the children in the end.”

The state government said that 80 per cent of child abuse cases are from unapproved schools, what measures should government put in place to curb this?
While Francis said this may be a bit debatable, bearing in mind that some of the celebrated cases of child abuse in recent times were from big private schools, but it can’t be dispute that such incidences may also be rampant in these schools, bearing in mind that none is keeping track of what is going on in these schools

Ibidapo said that though government has been working around checking cases of child abuses in schools but it needs to step up the game including collaborating with the private sector, non-governmental organisations and civil society organisations working in the education space to police the environment properly.

Ibidapo, nonetheless, stated that government should look into some of these schools that are viable. “You can actually empower and strengthen them to do better if there are things that they are lacking. There should be a way to empower them and they can also support some of these schools that are thriving in fact encourage even mergers for these small schools that have substance in them.

“If you have seen that a school has potential to become great and maybe they’ve survived for 15 years, and they are using one small shop, and there’s another school next door doing the same thing, while not encourage them to merge and form one big school or group of schools. We need to innovate around these things. The government also has to do more about monitoring and evaluation of these schools and then improve education policing.

“Some of these schools are actually being housed in buildings that are dilapidated and it is not good enough.”

Speaking on behalf of the state government, the Commissioner for Basic and Secondary School Education, Jamiu Tolani Alli-Balogun, argued that there is the need to understand the complexity of Lagos when it comes to managing so many things.

He added that virtually every day, many come into Lagos without going back, which is more or less a challenge for the government, with the population increasing because of the peaceful environment in the state.

“And then, we cannot be everywhere at the same time. It’s more or less a gradual moment from one location to another, trying to find out those operating school systems illegally. The issue is, we want to bring all of them into the approved net and it has to be with gradual steps, process, including counseling and encouraging them that they must meet the standard in line with the state government’s rules and regulations on establishment of schools.”

On plans to clampdown on these illegal schools, the commissioner said education is more or less a social investment, which requires a huge capital, so the engagement with the schools must be a gradual process and the schools cannot clampdown on.

According to him, directly or indirectly, the illegal schools contribute to the success of education in the state. “We will call them, counsel them and hold seminars with them on how to meet the requirements. This is because in every society there is a rule and guideline. And if you fall out of that guideline it means you are not conforming to the law. In our own case, we understand that as they also want to support the government, they also want to sustain their own livelihood. And if you say we should close them down, what do you expect? Are we increasing those in the unemployment labour?”

On TRCN survey revealing that over 70 per cent of teachers in private schools not qualified to teacher, the commissioner said that if any school is found not having qualified teachers, it would be noted with the school encouraged to employ qualified teachers.