In 1976, I graduated from what I will consider one of the finest secondary schools in the North, Queen Amina College, Kaduna. It used to be Queen of Apostles College Kaduna when it was managed by the Catholic mission before it was taken over by government and renamed.
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I enjoyed both worlds. I remember the Reverend Sisters, dedicated and diligent all ensuring that we were well catered for. Our parents were not afraid to send us away from school into a world where we benefitted not only excellent education but amazing life skills, etiquette, politeness, hard work and respect.
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It was here that you honed your artistic skills or flowered as a scientist and the Reverend Sisters were honest about what you were or were not good at. It was here that religious tolerance thrived as the sisters led by example building a mosque at the school’s gate.
It was here that Hajia Saudatu Mahdi studied Bible Religious knowledge. Cerebral and efficient at her job as Secretary General of Women’s Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA). A good Muslim, today she is sound in both religious books as all Queen Amina students have proven to be, We all prayed together at assembly so I know the Fathia as many Muslims then knew the Lord’s prayer.
I remember with the greatest respect two of the most phenomenal women in my life who have moulded me and all those who passed through Queen Amina during their time. The Principals when Government took over, the late Dr Ramatu Abdullahi and then Ms Salamatu Audu. Don’t cross them. Efficient administrators, top disciplinarians and great moulders of women. How can we forget Dr Ramatu Abdullahi’s excellent English at assembly or her beautiful eyes which became round and large when you had committed a foul? How can we forget the swift movement of Salamatu Audu, her impeccable dress sense and the curl of her lips when she looked at you if you are on the wrong side of the law? How can we forget how she spoke, every word in the right place?
Who did you emulate if you went to Queen Amina College in those times and you did not speak well? We were all their children and still are. It was a good time to go to school and an excellent time to be a boarder. I remember the protocol for going to bed, the prayers, lights out, entertainment on Saturdays and the debating society’s outing at NTA Kaduna.
The debates were fierce and we competed with many who went on to do great things including my brother, the cerebral Governor of Kaduna state, Mallam Nasir El Rufai. Boarding was beautiful. It blended us and mended us and gave us every reason to look forward to returning to school. My lifelong friends are from these institutions whose management placed the students above self.
Today what do we see? Hostels where you will not keep your animals and management that is in it for the beer.
I have been to many boarding schools across the land and very few are really interested in the welfare of the children. Many of the private schools are charging crazy money, a lot of the government ones are less than stellar and the children’s health is managed by fly by night nurses who offer Panadol for all ailments and some of the sick bays are there for siphoning money. I am at my wits end when parents complain of sick children who the school will not release and yet do not have the capacity to cater for.
In addition to all of these are matrons and staff who spend their lifetime putting children up to ask for favours for them. When I went to school, it was a crime to offer a staff money for anything. School rules could not be compromised by staff in cahoots with parents. Unheard of. My father was an educationist and he was very strict.
There was a chapel in the school which permitted outsiders to worship with us on Sundays. One of those Sundays my mum as all mums are wont to do travelled all the way from Zaria to Kaduna with jollof rice tucked in her basket which she handed to me and my sister after church. Unfortunately for us, Dr Abdullahi’s prying eyes caught the exchange as she walked past the chapel and she packed us off with my mum on a short suspension spell to as she put it “Go and continue enjoying jollof rice with your parents”. My father was mad. Several apologies later and a show of contrition saw us back in school.
But boarding schools today do not come anywhere near what we had. It’s difficult to understand how it all went south.
Bullying, cultism, wickedness even from children as young as 12 and 14 years is now the order of the day. Teachers who bully children are not excluded. You also have some schools peddling unqualified teachers and because it is a boarding school, you have no way of knowing.
Then there is sexual harassment by some male teachers and drug use in many schools including all female schools. In a lot of schools today, school fees are not really what rescues your children. It’s gifts to some members of the school as protection for your children. Then there are levies and more levies. So for example if the school decides to buy a bus and you had four children in the school, the school insists that you pay the bus levy four times after the school fees, which is insane.
I believe that boarding schools build resilience but with the fragility of today’s children, peer pressure, wickedness and intense bullying, some kids do not possess what it takes to survive all that life throws at them in today’s mean culture in boarding schools. Check your children’s moods and any change in character which may be telling. Get them to tell you what is going on. And if you are not happy or satisfied, pull them out and protect them at home while instituting a structure that will make them pass their exams. Trust me, some kids are not made for boarding with what is going on these days. Enough said.
Eugenia Abu
