It is a question of legality versus welfare as the Lagos State Government relocates 741 students of a secondary school in Ikola, Agbado/Okeodo Local Council Development Area, to pave way for an estate still in the offing. EMMANUEL ONYECHE examines the issues, noting that the government‘s move has inadvertently compounded the chaotic classroom situation in Lagos public schools
It is a case of adults creating the problem and children suffering the aftermath. Over 50 years ago when the land owners (Baales) of Ikola community in Agbado/Okeodo Local Council Development Area of Lagos were selling land to the people unhindered, they forgot to reserve some plots for social projects like schools, hospitals and recreation centres.
Now, the people who bought those lands have blossomed into a sociable Ikola community, with the population in the hundreds of thousands and spread into 40 community development associations with hardly any government presence in terms of schools or hospitals.
Chairman of the Joint CDA in Ikola, Chief Ahmed Okunlola, said among the population were the very poor who, either could not afford to send their children to private schools, or do so inconsistently. By 2005, he said, the nuisance value of children in Ikola who had never attended school or had dropped out of one had risen to such a level that it became worrisome to the community.
”By 2008, the CDA decided to save the future of these children by putting them in schools and preventing the springing up of another Ajegunle in Ikola,” he said.
There was no land for that purpose, as the Baales made it clear that any land they hadn‘t sold belonged to the government. An empty two-storey structure that had been lying fallow for quite some time was spotted in a vast expanse of land bought by the Lagos State Government and leaders of the community converted it into a school, named Ikola Community High School, with a retiree, Mr. Aderemi, who was once named the best principal in Lagos, as the pioneer principal.
Okunlola, who said they had to go about the ancient town with bells to announce to the parents to send their children to the school, added that the response was tremendous, as the school had a pupil population of 741 that reached up to Senior Secondary School One (SSS 1) before the December vacation.
Okunola, the Chairman of the school‘s Board of Governors, said the state‘s ministry of education was contacted to come and take over the school and that the government had sent its officials to that school on several occasions. He said that several meetings were also held among leaders of the community and officials of the ministry of education.
However, the intention of the government on the request of the Ikola community for the takeover of the school began to manifest when, by the fourth week of October 2010, alleged government officials came and took the data of all the pupils of the school without making their intention known to the school‘s authorities.
By November 22nd, the names of the pupils of the school began to appear in four of the government secondary schools nearest to the Ikola community school. The pupils saw their names either at Meiran Community High School, Ipaja Community High School, Abesan Community High School or Odualabe Community High School.
Okunlola said there was much confusion, as the school authority, which was in the dark on what was going on, was besieged by parents who came for the report cards of their wards which they would use to perfect the transfer of such children to the new schools.
To lend credence to the suspicion that the move was from the government was the fact that the pupils were not rejected in the schools they had been transferred to.
Okunola said it was not until November 27 that his school received a letter from District One of the Lagos State Ministry of Education (located at Dairy Farm, Agege), which oversees schools in Ikola, that it should vacate the structure by December 3, 2010.
“The students were taking their examinations at that time and we asked them to give us more time. Besides, we asked that the relocation should be gradual — till September 2011 — to enable us to salvage the situation. We are prepared to buy land, but where can we get four plots of land to take care of the number of our students?” he asked rhetorically.
But our correspondent learnt that the district was only acting out the script of the ministry of education. A source at the ministry who requested anonymity because he is not officially permitted to speak told our correspondent that the decision to relocate the school was taken by an inter-ministerial committee comprising all relevant agencies of the government.
”The land where that school is located was acquired by the government in 1968 and compensation was paid to the local community. That place has been earmarked by the government for an estate and so it will remain. The community neither owns the land nor built the structure that they are occupying. Now that the government has need of its land, those occupying it illegally must vacate it.”
He said the process by which a community attracts a government school is spelt out clearly by the government and that Ikola community did not follow that process. He said, ”For a community to have a school, they must provide the land, do the survey of that land in the name of the government and build a 12-room structure on it; and there must be adequate toilets for the pupils and the staff.”
Our correspondent, who visited the schools where the Ikola pupils had been transferred before they went on vacation, noted that the move had worsened the already chaotic classroom situation in such schools. At an average of 185.25 students transferred to each of the four schools, it meant an addition of at least 20 students per class in all the arms in classrooms that already had over 85 students each.
Some pupils were seen standing while classes were going on, as there were not enough chairs for them to sit on and write.
Okunlola said he feared that some of the pupils that had been transferred might end up dropping out of school again. ”Like I said, many of them are from poor background and they live within Ikola. To get to their new school in Meiran and back, for example, some of the pupils would need at least N240 daily as transport fare. How many parents can afford that in these hard times?” he said.
He pleaded with government to consider the welfare of the pupils, reasoning that the government would eventually need to provide a school in the estate it intends to build.
Source:punchng.com
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