In the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the country’s seat of power, public schools have long been hailed as the center of excellence for education. This is because they have been assumed to receive the best attention in terms of projects and policies regarding any improvement in the education sector as most public school located within the FCT are often used for such pilot education improvement schemes of the federal government.
However, a silent menace has been creeping into these public schools, threatening to hinder effective learning and denying learners the opportunities they deserve.
Overcrowded classrooms have become an unfortunate reality in many public schools across the nation’s capital as leaders of tomorrow are learning in overcrowded classrooms.
The rising student population and limited infrastructure in these schools have resulted in cramped spaces where effective learning is compromised.
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A report by the Data Centre of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) Institute for Statistics, of all the 189 countries, labelled Nigeria as one of the four countries with the highest number of overcrowded classrooms in its secondary schools.
UNESCO recommends 30 students per teacher yet many classes contain more than 100 students.
A classroom is said to be overcrowded if it exceeds the stipulated number in the benchmark. None of the public secondary schools visited by our reporter in Abuja was implementing the recommendation of the National Policy on Education or UNESCO.
Over the course of two weeks, BusinessDay randomly visited some public schools across the nation’s capital.
Among those visited were Junior Secondary School Area 11, Junior Secondary School Garki, Junior Secondary School Gosa, Junior Secondary School, Tudun Wada, Junior Secondary School Wuse Zone 3, Junior Secondary School, Wuse Zone 4, Junior Secondary Kabusa, Junor Secondary School Lugbe Junior Secondary School Aleita and Junior Secondary School Chika.
It was observed that in some cases, well over 90 students were in a classroom.
In a classroom at Junior Secondary School Aleita, Airport Road, our reporter observed that there were about 24 three-seater desks. Although there were a couple of empty desks, and some not having up to three students seated on them, a rough headcount revealed that there were about 90 students being taught by one teacher in a single classroom at the time of the visit without teaching aid like microphone.
While teaching was going on, it was observed that only the students sitting close to the front of the class paid relatively full attention to what was being taught.
Those sitting around the middle of the class were often distracted by side talks, while the students at the back were completely cut off from the teaching as they were not paying attention at all.
Also, the teacher appeared to be more interested in giving his attention to the students at the front than those sitting towards the back.
Another teacher, who appeared stressed and with a cracked voice after a lesson period, said, “Teaching is a calling, but it’s heart-breaking to see so many eager faces in the classroom and know that I can’t give each student the attention they deserve.”
A teacher in the school who pleaded anonymity said the school has just one toilet for both men and female teachers. He also disclosed that the school has no library for students to read.
There are never enough materials to cater to the learning needs of the mammoth crowd we have in our classrooms.
“There is also pressure on physical infrastructure, including desks and the buildings themselves. But what can we do?”
In Junior Secondary School Garki, Area 11, a teacher, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told our reporter that the average students’ population of the class he teaches is 70
“Sometimes I teach a class of 80 and sometimes around 79,” he said.
He noted that an average of 500 students were given admission into the JSS 1 class of the school in the 2023/2024 academic session.
“We have five classes for the JSS 1 student – 1A to 1E, and an average of 60 will be in each class.”
The story is not different at the Junior Secondary School Garki, where it was observed that JSS 3 A had over 81 number of students in a classroom.
While SS 3 Commercial classroom in the same school had over 100 students who were seen jostling for the next available chair in the class.
However, Junior Secondary School Tudun Wada Wuse Zone 4 was fully in compliance with the UNESCO recommended standard of 30 and 35 students in a classroom.
Samuel Omaji, the National President Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS), said overcrowding in most schools has made it impossible to achieve effective teaching and learning.
Omaji said many schools, he witnessed a student population ranging from 70-100 in a classroom, being taught by a single teacher, adding, that overcrowded classrooms does not auger well for quality of education as the best standard should be 35 to 45 students in a class.
Overcrowded classrooms are difficult to manage and are not conducive to both learning and teaching according to him.
Similarly, Isioma Idaboh, an educational analyst who gave his thoughts on the problems associated with overcrowded classrooms said: “From the term overcrowding, that already gives a negative view of whatever it is.”
According to him, “the classroom is filled up to the brim, that is, more than the required number of children, there’s definitely going to be problems. There is going to be a problem of health.
There is going to be a problem related to psychology. There’s going to be a problem of emotion, temperament, and so on.
“There will also be a problem of bullying. You know, some children are bigger in size and they feel even if three of them or four are to sit in a place, they occupy a space for two and they expect the other three to look for another place. Practically, I’ve seen some of the children not sitting, and some just using one part of their bum. You know, they are bullied.
“Bullying comes in; health issue comes in, you understand. And then when all of this happens, definitely education cannot happen. The children are already psychologically disturbed.”
He appealed to the Nyesom Wike, the minister of the Federal Capital Territory to provide facilities to promote quality of education so as to serve as a model for states of the federation.
Some students also expressed worry over the quality of education they are receiving from overcrowded public schools to BusinessDay.
Adamu (not his real name), a 13-year-old student in Junior Secondary School Garki, told BusinessDay that he faces the challenge of concentration in class because of how noisy her class is.
“It is too noisy. I can hardly hear what the teacher is teaching. Even when I try to concentrate, the noise keeps distracting me and no one is doing anything about it,” he said.
He added that he shares his desk with two other students, one of whom is too playful and the other a bully.
Another student who simply gave her name Joy said she had lost interest in academics.
Speaking on the condition of public schools, Hassan Sule, the Director/ Chairman of FCT Universal Basic Education Board, UBEB, confirmed that teachers were under pressure due to crowded classrooms.
“Over-crowdedness of student is one of the major challenges faced by FCT. This is due to the influx of people to the FCT on a daily basis, as well as the mobilisation of parents on the importance of education.
The Board will erect more buildings in urban centres to decongest FCT schools. It will also increase and renovate classrooms in rural areas,’’ he said.
According to him, ” UNESCO recommended standard is only achievable in an Ideal situation.
“For us in FCT basic education is free and that is what we are working hard to achieve,” he said.
Let me give you an example, last year September, we established a primary school in Zaman community with less than 70 pupils comprising 3 classrooms. That is 23 number of pupils per class but when I visited the school this year, there were over 50 in a class because more parents were bringing their children to register.
“Don’t forget that budget provision is made once a year so such situation does you expect us to send the children back because the class is overcrowded? When we are trying to reduce the number of out of school children in Nigeria.
“It is not a deliberate attempt to overcrowd the school but to achieve the Universal Basic Education Policy of free and compulsory education for all children in Nigeria.
“There is a primary school in Bwari Area Councils that has provision to admit only 200 pupils but when the children kept on coming, they had to admit more than 400 pupils; so, this is the situation we found ourselves,” he added.
He assured that the administration was working to reposition public schools in FCT to serve as a model for schools in the country.
