Lagos pupils await JSS1, SS1 placements two months into new academic year

TWO months into the first term of the new academic year, some students who sat the Primary School Leaving Certificate Examination and Junior Secondary Certificate Examination are still waiting for placements into JSS1 and SS1 classes in Lagos public secondary schools.

The concerned pupils are not more worried than their parents and guardians. Some of the parents shared with Saturday Tribune, what they have been passing through in their attempts to secure placements for their children since the new academic session began. Pupils of private schools are also having their share of the problem.

For example, investigations by Saturday Tribune revealed that not all pupils from Anglican Primary School, Aiyetoro, Ajegunle, in Ajeromi Ifelodun Local Government Area have been placed as of this week. The same thing applies to pupils from Ikbe Nursery and Primary School (private), also within the axis. The affected pupils have all chosen Oshodi Junior Secondary School, Tolu Complex, as their preferred institution.

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This is not completely unexpected as Ajegunle is a densely populated community where most families are financially incapable of sending their children to private schools and have come to see public schools as their only option.

Similarly, no fewer than three pupils from Goodness Nursery and Primary School, Aboru, Iyana-Ipaja, who chose State Junior High School, Alimosho, are yet to be placed as of Thursday. Rafiu Ajoke, Rafiu Fawaz and Adegoke Abdulahi and many others are pupils who still cuddle their pillows every morning while their mates prepare to go to school.

Investigations showed that this is not a strange situation when it comes to pupils transitioning from primary to secondary school or from JSS3 to SS1 in the state, a situation the state is finding worrisome as a result of the surging number of pupils seeking admission into public schools as a result of the economic hardship in the country.

Upon a closer look, however, Saturday Tribune was able to gather that this year’s delay is longer than usual. As of last week, a half of the first term of the 2023/2024 academic calendar for primary and secondary school students in the state had elapsed. The second half commenced six days ago, on October 30, with the students expected to sit the first term examination not long from now, after which they will take a break for the Christmas holiday on Friday, December 15, to end the first term.

In Lagos, just like in many other states, students’ promotional evaluation from one class to the next is based on cumulative results of the first, second and third term examinations and this calculation is making many parents wonder what would be the fate of their kids who are yet to be placed even as the end of the first term is approaching.

Our ordeals –Parents

Mrs Bolajoke Elvis, a mother of three, whose son is also affected by the development, told Saturday Tribune that she was at a loss regarding what to tell her boy concerning the delay in seeing his posting.

According to her, she shuttles between Education District 5 Office, which serves the Ajeromi Ifelodun Local Government Area and a few other local government areas in the state and the Tolu Complex, where Oshodi Junior Secondary School is located, to check for her child’s name.

She stated that on each occasion, she meets some other parents that have also come for the same enquiry within the cluster of schools inside the complex.

Mrs Elvis, who is a widow and a petty trader, expressed frustration over the situation, saying that she was ready to pay the sum of N8,100 that parents were being asked to pay in lieu of tax once her child’s posting is out.

Another parent, an artisan, who gave his name simply as Murtala, also told Saturday Tribune that his daughter, who had her primary education in a private school and applied to Government Girls’ College, Iyana-Ipaja, remained to be placed.

He wondered what could have been responsible since the girl passed her common entrance examination and also met the required age of 12 years for students seeking admission into public secondary schools in the state.

He also mentioned the case of his neighbour’s son who sat for the state admission examination and had a similar experience. According Murtala, the boy chose Vetland School and was not granted a placement till much later when he was placed in Elva Adelaja Memorial Junior Secondary School, instead of Vetland, his first choice.

Also sharing her ordeal, Mrs Millicent Ifeanyi, a journalist, said her son who is transitioning from a private school to SSI in a public school, was also yet to be placed as of Thursday.

With eight ‘A’s in his Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), her son had approached King’s College, Lagos, a Federal Government-owned school, and the Lagos State government for any of its model colleges but had to resume in a private school pending the time the government would respond.

It’s a sad development –Lagosians

This development has continued to elicit reactions from residents. Concerned citizens have argued that the development could set back the state government’s efforts at ensuring that no child is left behind in education.

According to some of the respondents, the development is capable of discouraging parents, especially the indigent ones, from sending their children to school.

They argued that what the government should be doing at this time should be to encourage, and not discourage, such parents.

“The government should know that the implications of all this are quite dire. When a child is allowed to drop out at that stage, the likelihood of the child going into crime is very high. The government should know that it is less expensive to train children in school free of charge than to fight crimes by those who did not go to school and later become thorns in the flesh of the society,” a resident, who preferred to be anonymous, argued.

Another resident, Mr Moshood Oshunfunrewa, called on the state government to take the issue of education more seriously. He argued that the state has all it takes to positively impact the sector and reposition it for the benefit of all.

“How much, for example, would the Lagos State government spend to build enough schools, equip them and recruit good and well-remunerated teachers? I believe all these are not beyond the state government. We shouldn’t toy with the future of these children, as we are presently doing. It is when a child, particularly from an underprivileged home, gets good education that he or she will have the opportunity to be liberated from ignorance and the cycle of poverty. But when people in government seem not to have empathy for such children and are only concerned with how to raise the state’s internally generated revenues (IGR), the society will always have a bigger problem to contend with in future,” Oshunfunrewa said.

He noted that a lot of gifted students have ended up becoming a menace to the society due to neglect by the same society that was supposed to take care of them. “That is what has happened to most of the area boys and area girls that we are seeing all around today,” he added.

Oshunfunrewa urged government to have a rethink about this situation and expand access to education, both at the primary and secondary school levels. He argued that the government does not need to make education out of the reach of the poor if it is sincere with its policy of providing free and compulsory education for every school-age child for at least the first 12 years of education.

We have intervened –Parents’ Forum

Reacting to the development, the chairman of the Parents’ Forum for the Lagos Public Schools, Deacon Olusoji Adams, acknowledged that some students are truly yet to be placed in JSSI and SS1 classes in public schools in the state.

He told Saturday Tribune that he had received complaints from many parents across the state concerning the situation. He also said that the ‘operation show your tax clearance’ before a new student can proceed with registration in state-owned schools was the first battle that most parents had to contend with this new academic session.

He also stated that most parents that send their children to public schools are indigents who do not have meaningful means of living, let alone paying taxes.

He, however, pointed out that the forum is looking into the matter and appealed to parents and pupils who have been affected by this situation to exercise patience with the government as it has given the assurance that no child will be left behind.

I’m not aware of delayed posting –ANCOPPS president

However, the president of the All Nigerian Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS), Lagos State chapter, Mr Omasheyi Olusola, said he was not aware of the development. He told Saturday Tribune that he was not aware of any student from either government schools or government-approved private schools who passed the common entrance examination and was yet to be placed as of the time of talking to our correspondent.

“I want to believe that all eligible students have already been placed. So, your claim is strange as far as I am concerned,” he stated.

We’ve placed 8,207 pupils so far, admission still ongoing –Govt

In its reaction, the state government acknowledged that it is not all eligible pupils that have secured placement at the moment.

The government, through the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, disclosed that it had only admitted a total of 8,207 students as of last week and did so in batches across its schools and local government areas. It gave the assurance that the process is still ongoing.

The Head of Public Affairs Unit of the ministry, Mr Ganiu Lawal, who gave this position, told Saturday Tribune that those admitted comprised pupils from public and private schools in the state and those who just relocated to Lagos.

He, however, pointed out that the original deadline for receiving applications from students, especially those newly relocated to Lagos, was August 31, 2023, but was extended to mid-September due to appeal from parents.

He added that all indigent pupils and survivors of sexual and domestic violence in the state were given special consideration for placement as requested by the state’s Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency and some other non-governmental organisations in the state.

Interestingly, sources from the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) and the Education District II and V shed more light on this year’s admission issues in the state.

They said only about 80 per cent of eligible students had been placed so far and that the remaining 20 per cent would be placed in not more than two batches.

“Some parents don’t bother to check, or they go to the wrong schools to check for their children’s names while they complain that their children have not been placed. It is later that they will now discover that their children have been placed, and that they were the ones that didn’t check well,” one of the sources stated.

The sources appealed to parents to be patient while assuring that the process is still ongoing. They insisted that no child who passed the common entrance examination and is up to 12 years old will be left out.

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