Inside Abuja’s ‘business centres’ disguised as schools

In what is fast becoming an eyesore in Abuja, the nation’s seat of power, sub-standard schools built primarily for money-making now dot the landscape of most satellite towns in the FCT. With the education inspectorate doing little or nothing to address the menace, stakeholders fear that the practice may harm a system already struggling with the scourge of multi-layered neglect. DIRISU YAKUBU reports!

education is seen largely as both a service and a right. It is the responsibility of the government across all tiers to dispense education to the citizenry, whose right it is to embrace. Difficult as it is to enumerate its mileage in a single report, it suffices to suggest that the biggest weapon in the armoury of Nigeria’s foremost nationalists and Africa’s freedom fighters was the education they had, which enabled them to dare the colonial imperialists, forcing the latter to relinquish power reluctantly.

So big is the harvest of a good quality education that the Sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the then Premier of the Western Region, made education compulsory and free for children, many of whose parents could not afford fees and other payments required to keep their wards within the four walls of an educational institution.

The near collapse of governance at all levels in subsequent years culminated in the fall of education standards, forcing well-to-do parents to withdraw their children and wards from public schools for enrollment in private institutions.

With improved earnings over the years, many parents took the private schools’ option, given their ability to pay more remuneration to teachers while exposing pupils and students to better-teaching models and other extra-curricular activities.

The patronage of private schools, needless to state here, has seen education morph from a service to business ventures. Across major cities in Nigeria, including Abuja, the seat of power, those who have no expertise in school administration have, with a combination of greed and crass opportunism, set up schools, targeting the children of low-income earners, to earn a living.

In most of the satellite towns in the FCT, schools lack basic infrastructure, and qualified manpower and recreational facilities are a common sight today. With government officials either playing the ostrich or abdicating their duties, enforcement of standards has thus been relegated to the background.

In a tour of some ‘schools’ in Abuja, The PUNCH uncovered a litany of rot, ranging from the engagement of semi-literate teachers to the absence of libraries, laboratories, sports facilities, to name just a few.

Findings revealed that the school proprietors, while charging relatively high fees, pay their teachers peanuts, citing the harsh economic realities of the times.

At Leaders Academy Drive, off Tiga Street, Kurudu, Abuja Municipal Area Council, is a three-bedroom apartment housing a family of four. It is a middle-class residential building, plastered but not painted. On this fateful Tuesday morning, a sharp voice emanating from a store in this building got the attention of this correspondent.

To his surprise, a young lady reading out Nigerian States and their capitals announced to a class of four children an impending examination to test their mastery of what she had taught them thus far.

Surprised that a school was being run in such a location, this reporter took a few steps in the direction of the young teacher, and this conversation ensued.

“Good morning, madam. How are you doing today? You run a school here?,” I asked her.

Good morning, sir. Yes, we are just starting,” she replied. “Our target is the young children who are old enough to be in school now, but due to one reason or another, are not. Things are tough for many families, and we are trying to make sure that we have in place a system that can be of assistance to these young children and their parents.”

Then I went further by asking to know if it was a conventional school she set out to run.

“Interesting! I will be right to say this is not a formal school but an arrangement to get these young minds engaged, preparatory to having them enrolled in a conventional school.”

She replied, “It is a conventional setting, sir. From here, their parents can take them straight to basic four or five and after a year or two, they will proceed to junior secondary school. I have ten pupils here of different ages. They did not start at the same time, and I don’t teach them the same thing.”

When I asked which curriculum they used in teaching the kids, she added, “I teach them the things I believe they should know. I teach them English, Mathematics, Civics Education, Christian Religious Studies and Basic Science. We are not using any curriculum for now.”

On the affordability of her arrangement, she replied, “We have an agreement with the parents. I am also a bit careful because there are basic requirements for setting up a school. The parents love what I do here, and they support me. I don’t want to speak in detail about fees or whatever you call it.”

She refused to state whether she was a trained teacher or not, when this correspondent asked to know. Instead, she stated her love for teaching endeared her to the project.

“I will go back to school. It is my love for teaching that inspired me to start this. I will go back to school soon. Like I said, these children are very young. I am just trying to teach them basic things they should know at this stage of their lives,” she added.The story of this unnamed “school” resonates across many communities in the Federal Capital Territory. Taking advantage of a system with a near-zero disposition to the enforcement of basic standards, individuals with little or no training in education set up ‘schools’ that can best be described as business centres.

Still in the Kurudu District, the story is slightly better at the Lifespring Academy, which runs nursery/primary and secondary schools.

At Lifespring, the school lacks a modest space required for the sporting needs of the students. As it were, students here make use of public fields at the Local Education Authority Primary School for their interhouse sports and other outdoor activities.

A man who simply identified himself as Mr Joshua told our correspondent that though Lifespring is an upgrade on other schools in the vicinity, it suffers from a lack of adequately trained manpower needed for imparting knowledge.

He said, “Everything is turning to business, and we should be worried. Here (Lifespring), one is surprised to see that they have an SSCE and NECO accreditation centre. That is their biggest bargaining chip. They will tell you that their accreditation status indicates the high rating they enjoy in the books of the Federal Capital Territory Administration authorities.

“We must not manage two things: education and health. If health and education facilities are substandard, let us not expect much to reap thereafter. What is happening is that business is winning, but services are neither here nor there.”

A trip to the Ivy Academy, Kpeyegi, revealed a similar pattern of poor standards and lack of trained manpower. A pre-nursery, nursery, and primary school, Ivy Academy boasts a handful of skilled teachers and several school certificate holders.

At the Graceland International Academy, Orozo, a magnificent edifice, paints a phoney picture of efficiency on how things ought to be done.