As government decries low patronage of federal unity schools

The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, recently disclosed that only 28 candidates from Zamfara state registered for the 2018 National Common Entrance Examination (NCEE).Adamu in a statement released in Abuja by the spokesperson of the Federal Ministry of Education (FME), Mrs. Priscilla Ihuoma, also said that the federal government was worried about the low number of candidates seeking admission into its over 100 unity colleges.

The minister said the report of a recently held stakeholders’ meeting indicated that Taraba, Kebbi and Zamfara states had the lowest number of candidates who registered for the 2018 NCEE. While Taraba had 95, Kebbi had 50. In order to encourage parents to register their candidates for the examination, the minister directed that access to the portal for registration should be left open until Friday April 13, 2018, a day to the exam; to allow interested candidates register. The exam took place as scheduled on Saturday April 14, 2018 at the various designated centers across the country.

The NCEE is an achievement test conducted by the National Examinations Council (NECO) for pupils in the sixth year of their primary education. Candidates are selected (using a set criteria) from the list of those who obtained the required cut-off mark in the exam for admission in to the country’s 104 federal unity schools. The test,which was mandatoryfor all primary six pupils in the past, became optional when full implementation of the 6-3-3-4 National Policy on Education began. The policy makes the first 9 years of basic education (6 years at the primary level and 3 years at the junior secondary school) free and compulsory; meaning that a pupil does not require sitting forany test after his/her 6 years of primary education in order to proceed to a junior secondary school. Candidates that write the NCEE today are those interested in seeking admission into federal unity schools. 

Federal Government Colleges (FGCs) and Federal Government Girls Colleges (FGGCs) were established to promote unity and national integration. They are the only set of secondary schools that belong to the federal government in Nigeria because secondary education, by law, is directly the responsibility of state governments. Former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon (rtd) once told an audience why he established FGCs in the then 12 states of the federation. He said only four unity schools existed in the country at the time he became Head of State. 

General Gowon said the decision to establish a federal unity school in each state was informed by his visit to FGC Sokoto in 1973. He said he was impressed by the sense of unity (regardless of ethnic or religious background) which he observed among the students during the visit.

Granted that Zamfara would always be in the news for not-too-cheering reasons, the patronage of FGCs by Nigerian parents is generally low compared to what obtained in the past. Today, most of the FGCs are like state-owned schools where students’ population is not heterogeneous.The mutual mistrust that nowadays characterizes inter-personal relationships among Nigerians dissuades many parents from sending their children to FGCs in parts of the country where their own tribe or religion is not in majority. A probable stronger factor to explain the low patronage is the abysmal academic standard that later came to epitomize teaching and learning in these schools.

Until Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s second tenure as president (2003-20007), FGCs were first choice secondary institutions. I was a teacher for 20 years in one of the FGCs in Abuja during the good old days of such schools. More than the role played by politics, inadequate funding coupled with systemic corruption,ruined the fortunes of these once high-standard colleges that are today not better than glorified primary schools. The survival,to date, of these schools under the federal ministry of educationis simply owed to God’s mercy. Their continued existence as federal unity schools has been threatened several times in the past. 

For example, the administration of former military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida(rtd) proposed to hand the schools over to government of the respective states in which they arelocated. But the singular intervention by the then First Lady, Maryam Babangida, who on behalf of wives of state governorspleaded with her husband to allow the schools remain under the FME, saved the FGCs. When corruption that irresistibly plagued government business in the running of these schools, former President Obasanjo who had an obsession for selling federal government properties sold all the federal unity schools to Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) loyalists and his political cronies. However, late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua’s reversal of the sale was the grace that, again, saved the schools.

Academic excellence and moral trainingwere the main functionalities that, hitherto, motivated most parents to seek admission for their children into FGCs. Now that these two treasures are lost,the minister of education should express little surprise at the low patronage of the schools by parents whose greatest asset to their children is quality education. May Allah (SWT) inspire MalamAdamuAdamu to declare the state of emergency in the education sector he long promised us, amin.

Minister Fashola comforts Nupe communities in Niger state:

If there is any news that gladdened the heart of the Nupe speaking people of Niger state in recent times, it is the announcement about the reconstruction of the Lambata-Lapai-Agaie-Bida road. Briefing State House correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, the Minister of State for Power, Works and Housing, Hon Mustapha Baba Shehuri, announced that FEC has approved the award of the contract for the reconstruction of “one of the worst federal roads in the county; the Lambata-Lapai-Agaie-Bida road.

This column had, last year, lamented the failed state of the road in a piece published on this page; precisely on Saturday April 8, 2017. The piece, which carried the title “OgaFashola: What’s the sin of Nupe communities?” recounted the history of the over 36-years-old road.

By this feat, Oga Babatunde Fashola has shown that he is a listening minister who remains sensitive to the plight of the Nigerian people. Although only the Etsu Nupe is competent to speak for the entire Nupe race of  Nigeria, I declare Fashola as every Nupe native’s “Man of the Year 2018”. We pray to witness the commissioning of the reconstructed road, amin.