Little Bimpe Akande sat precariously on the dirty blue plastic bucket. The bucket served as a makeshift toilet. She is one of 100 other kindergarten pupils at Alfred Missionary School, Apapa in Lagos.

“This is our toilet. Our aunty told us to use this bucket anytime we are pressed,” the 4-year-old Akande told this reporter. The bucket was already half filled.

There is nothing conducive about the school or its environment for learning. It is surrounded by a block of six rowdy shops. Spare parts dealers, cosmeticians, food vendors, black oil marketers and technicians all jostling for attention in their respective shops. The neighborhood is filled with nauseating stench emitting from waste bins heaped to the brim and blocked drainages.

The entrance into the one room school is a narrow path caked in dirt. The classroom is not illuminated and has ventilation of no kind. The roof has no ceiling. There are signs on the wall suggesting the classroom must once have been flooded.

“Truth be told, this wasn’t where we were using before now. We only moved here few weeks back after the demolition of the church compound which we named the school after. That particular building was destroyed by officers of the fire service team who claimed it was an illegal building.

“This place we are now is a temporary abode. It is a football viewing centre which we begged the owner to spare us for the mean time,” Ebere Okeke, the proprietress of Alfred Missionary school, said.

Neighbors confirmed to Daily Trust earlier that the school was sent out from the church but she had spent several months at the football viewing centre.

There were many other inconsistencies in Okeke’s account. She said she planned to leave the place by end of May but had not yet secured anywhere. Neighbours put the population of the school at 100 but when Okeke was asked she initially said 30 then changed the figure to 40.

She also would not say if her school was registered with the state government but kept insisting her operations were legitimate.

Upon enquiring from the state Ministry of Education, the Public Relations Officer, Lanre Bajulaiye said Alfred Missionary School is an illegal school.

“Yes we are aware that many illegal schools are in existence but this particular one is not known to us. What we are doing actually is to be compiling a list of these substandard schools and then ask our inspectorate unit to go after them. Those that deserve to be approved will be approved while those that do not will be asked to pack up. You know it is not wise to treat each of these cases in isolation. I’m sure such school must be an illegal school. It doesn’t have our approval,” Bajulaiye said.

But Ayo Shonubi, State President, National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), Lagos blames the state government for the proliferation of illegal schools.

“First, it is the responsibility of the state government to guard against proliferation of private schools. When you formulate policies, there must be a room to monitor compliance and enforcement. If government fails to do that, no one will do it. Secondly, we need to find out if government made provision for an alternate school in the area. I’m sure it could be the desire of people within the neighbourhood to have a school that forced them to patronize such ramshackled school,” Shonubi said.

A recent audit report carried out by the state Ministry of Education in partnership with Department of Infrastructural Development (DFID) through its Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria (ESSPIN) revealed that a staggering population of one million pupils attends over 12,000 illegal schools in Lagos state.

http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=162697:lagos-proprietress-trains-kindergarten-pupils-in-one-room-viewing-centre&catid=13:education&Itemid=205

Not all private schools are worth being called one and as it was indicated in the article, the Lagos state government is responsible for the proliferation of such this menace. They should do more in monitoring, awareness and i don't care if they go to the extreme, but there should be severe punishment for all parties involved from the parents to the illegal school owners.

Sometimes i wonder why kids are sent to these schools, the lack of state schools in some vicinity should not be the only excuse IMO.

No wonder the increasing number of educated illiterates on Nairaland from the Lagos area.

Assuming population of Lagos is 10m, average family size of 7 (father, other and 5 kids), That gives about 1.4m families. If on average 3 kids r in secondary and primary schools (reflection of national demographic average), it means there will be about 5.2m kids in d state. If 1m attend illegal schools, that translates to 1 out of 5 kids attend illegal schools in Lagos.

That's a highly significant fraction.

Yeske!:
No wonder the increasing number of educated illiterates on Nairaland from the Lagos area.

Tell me about it.

Yeske!:
No wonder the increasing number of educated illiterates on Nairaland from the Lagos area.

Na so. Often times, I cannot even read some people's post. Some people cannot even construct full basic english sentences so I am not suprised by this report.