| ANY time from now the return of junior secondary schools to the 104 Federal Government Colleges will be announced. This is following the decision of the National Council on Education (NCE) to reverse an earlier decision to take out the JSS from the schools. Against this backdrop, parents, teachers and old students are waiting with bated breath for a set date for the National Common Entrance Examination into the 104 Unity colleges.
The NCE, which is the highest policy making body in the education sector, took the decision at its 56th session in Abuja between March 1 and 5.
It has been a long battle for the return of JSS since 2006 when the then Education Minister, Mrs Chinwe Nora Obaji, announced that they were being scrapped in the Federal Government-owned secondary schools in the name of implementing the Universal Basic Education (UBE) scheme introduced by former President Olusegun Obasanjo administration.
Since the scheme stipulates compulsory six years of primary and three years of junior secondary education for every school-aged child, Mrs. Obaji also announced the cancellation of the yearly national common entrance examination through which candidates applying to the schools were screened, while the first school leaving certificate issued at the end of six years of primary education was abolished.
Her argument then was that conducting an entrance examination into JSS1 contravened the objectives of the scheme which required that pupils move unimpeded from primary six to JSS1 with the aim of raising the minimum literacy level to JSS3, after which pupils would be issued with the Basic Education certificate.
Since 2006, the colleges have been operating only the senior secondary arm – accepting pupils into SS1 classes only. State governments complied with the directive and stopped conducting entrance examinations into JSS1. Pupils only have to register in secondary schools close to their homes after their primary education.
However, private schools and secondary schools run by the military – command, air force and naval schools - continued to advertise and conduct entrance examinations into JSS1, arguing that there had to be a means of selecting qualified candidates.
On many occasions, since 2006, the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), the umbrella body of unity school teachers, pointed out this fact to the Federal Government while seeking the restoration of the junior schools.
"The military schools are running JSS and conducting entrance examinations and nobody has stopped them. I don’t know why unity schools were singled out," said the National Secretary-General of the union, Solomon Onaghinion.
But when Mrs Oby Ezekwesili, who succeeded Obaji in 2006, came up with the public-private partnership (PPP) model of managing the 104 colleges, the union also contended against what it perceived as a design to ultimately sell the schools to moneybags in the corridors of power.
Over the four-year period, there were two major strikes by the teachers fighting the two policies. The first lasted seven weeks, from October 9 to December 2007, and the second was in September, last year.
In 2008, attempts were made to reintroduce the national common entrance when Dr Igwe Aja-Nwachukwu was Education Minister. The examination was conducted nationwide by the National Examination Council (NECO) in April, and results were released. Qualified candidates were invited for interview in August. However, the entire exercise was cancelled.
The NCE’s decision to restore the JSS component was a result of pressure from the union as well as parents under the National Association of Parents of Federal Unity Secondary Schools (NAPAFUSS). Education Minister, Dr Sam Egwu, was quoted to have said pressure from the union led to the setting up of a ministerial committee to look into the issue.
"The association and other members of the public saw the severance as a ploy by the Federal Government to gradually and eventually dispose of the Federal Unity Colleges. It was against this background that a ministerial committee was set up which strongly recommended the restoration of the JSS component of the unity schools to advance the cause of national unity," he said.
The NCE communiqué also said running the JSS arm in unity schools does not contravene the provisions of the UBE scheme.
"Following extensive deliberations, the council noted that JSS in the Federal Unity Colleges (FUC) does not contradict the 2004 UBE Law, as the FUCs are also a special intervention effort by the Federal Government," it stated.
Speaking on the decision which has gladdened the heart of teachers, the Principal of King’s College, Lagos, Mr Dele Olapeju, said it would give the less-privileged access to quality education.
"Everybody is happy about it because it is a leverage that will allow the indigent but intelligent child to have access to good education," he said.
He added that the three years of senior secondary was insufficient to groom the quality of pupils the schools desire.
"Our challenge is that if you send pupils to us in SS1, the time is not enough to groom them. After SS1, they are ready to write exam and parents defy us when we instruct them not to register the boys for NOV/DEC WASSCE in SS2. When the boys return, they are out of control. They see their results and refuse to study when they get to SS3," he said.
The General-Secretary of ASCSN, King’s College unit, Comrade Uche Chukwuemeka, also said the pupils were more difficult to handle than if they had started out in the school from JSS1.
"The schools are witnessing a hell of problems at present because there are no JSS arms. The present SS1 students are a mixture of children from various backgrounds and it is difficult to handle them. They formed so many bad habits when they were in junior schools and it is difficult to bend them. It should be on record that before JSS was removed from Federal Government Colleges, they were doing very well," he said.
It is not only in the area of discipline teachers claim to experience problems grooming the present senior pupils in the colleges. Mr Asuquo Emmanuel, assistant coach of Queen’s College, Yaba says it is at present more difficult grooming athletes that can break records. Unlike previously when, on the average, SS1 pupils jumped up to 1.3 metres in High Jump, he said the current pupils are jumping just one metre.
"The SS1 girls are inherited students from other local schools. At present, we don’t have a High Jump champion in SS1, but we have in SS2 and SS3. These are people we groomed from JSS1. The record for Intermediate category (i.e JSS3 to SS1) was 1.45m set in 2002 by Ofure Echejire. She also set the 1.55 metres in senior category in 2003 but now we have SS1 girls jumping just one metre," he said.
However, as the Federal Government plans to restore the JSS component, ASCSN Chairman for King’s College, Comrade Mohammed Isa, said funding should be increased to the schools for laboratory equipment and teachers should be recruited. He said there was no way pupils can be expected to perform well when laboratories are empty and there are not enough teachers.
"Since 1999, there have not been any teacher on Level 8 – and this is despite the delay in promotions. Go round the unity schools, the Federal Government is not employing teachers so how do they want us to perform? Only the Federal schools in Lagos have teachers. However, two years ago, 114 teachers were redeployed from King’s College, only 45 were brought in.
"The minister says teachers and principals will be penalised if students fail but the ministry should equip schools before penalising teachers. As soon as they restore the JSS, they should also back it up with materials. Look at our labs, they are empty. You will find only bottles. It is just this World Bank STEP-B project that is helping some schools. They have asked us to prepare a list of equipment needed in the laboratory. But the money has not been released," he said.
Chukwuemeka also suggested that the administration of junior and senior schools be separated for effective monitoring and quality assurance.
"I would suggest that the junior secondary schools be separated from the senior secondary like has been successfully practised by Lagos and Imo states. This way, the junior schools will have their own principals and the pupils and teachers would be more manageable because they won’t be too many. I hope the input by teachers will also be effectively monitored by the principals. It will give them more control over their teachers," he said.
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