The decision by many parents to pull their children out of boarding houses in schools across the country really calls for concern. The recent perception by many that allowing their children to remain in the boarding house is like sending them to the Biblical Golgotha is also worrisome. Aside from the general insecurity across the country, which has made most schools, especially in the North, vulnerable to attacks by bandits who kidnap for ransom, any other reason being given for the withdrawal of children from boarding houses can be addressed.
Without any iota of doubt, recent developments in some schools across the country have given a bad image to the boarding house system in our institutions of learning, especially at the secondary school level. However, the boarding system in schools comes with a lot of benefits not only to the parents, especially the working class and busy business people, but also the students as well as it helps in proper grooming and enables bonding and fostering of a life-long friendship in many students who attend the same schools.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo recently gave a good account of how the secondary school he attended, Igbobi College, Lagos, helped in grooming and shaping him to become the person he is today. Apparently, he was a boarding student and must have benefitted immensely from the system. Similar testimonies had been given in the past by prominent Nigerians, who met at various schools in their formative years and grew up to become good friends and business leaders later in life. Such is the beauty, benefits and importance of attending a secondary school with a boarding house that it almost became a status symbol to be a boarding student.
Unfortunately, recent ugly developments in some boarding schools across the country are beginning to tarnish the good intentions of the system, resulting in a campaign for its abolition. From the commercial city of Lagos to Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, there have been cases of alleged abuse, bullying, torture and molestation of younger students by their seniors, which, in some cases, have resulted, allegedly, in the death of the victims. In some other cases, alleged nonchalance and inadequate care by even the school authorities and their failure to act as at when due have also proven to be fatal, with vulnerable students at the receiving end.
As of today, no less than two cases resulting from the challenges of the schools’ boarding house system in Nigeria are currently being handled by the authorities concerned in both Lagos and Abuja. While the parents of the victims are still mourning the loss of their children, alleging torture, bullying and inadequate care by schools’ authorities, even as they call for justice, the schools’ authorities are washing their hands off any complicity in the unfortunate death of the affected students.
Parents of some of the accused senior students in the affected schools are also fighting tooth and nail to prove that their children and wards are innocent of all allegations, especially bullying and torture. In some cases, cultism and lesbianism, among other social vices, appear to have crept into the secondary school system with the boarding houses as breeding grounds.
While it is true that some schools are just after the money they collect from the parents as they leave the students to behave any way they like, it is pertinent to note here that actual moulding of a student’s character should start from the home. It is sad that some parents are now shying away from their primary responsibility and leaving actual and proper parenting to the schools. Charity, it is often said, begins at home and this should be the guiding principle.
There is no doubt that the boarding house system in our schools needs a total reform and overhaul, just like the entire school system. The moral decadence in our society is really affecting our school system just as the misplaced value system in our society has also extended to the schools. Worst affected in the deterioration is the private school sector with the influx of quacks, shylocks and unprofessionals into the sector as there is a sort of sanity in the public school sector, despite the challenges there, too.
While we condemn the rot in the system as exemplified in recent developments, we believe that something urgent should be done to salvage the situation. The role of the government in this case is paramount. As the chief regulator in the education sector, the government should come in to address the challenges in order to bring back the good old days.
The governments at the various levels should be interested in our boarding school system, guide and guard it efficiently and effectively instead of leaving it to the whims and caprices of school proprietors. While it is true that some private schools still maintain high moral standards and discipline in their boarding schools, the same cannot be said of many others, especially with the full commercialisation of education even at the secondary school level.
If we truly believe that the students of today are the leaders of tomorrow, then, now is the time to really reform the boarding house system in our schools as a stitch in time saves nine.
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