Labour has faulted fresh plans to concession Federal Government Colleges to private business interests, warning that the act will destroy the Unity School system.
The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, ASCSN, lamented selling the schools under the guise of PPP would price millions of children out of quality secondary education.
ASCSN reacted to reports that King’s College, Lagos, had been approved for concession to its Old Boys’ Association.
It warned that the remaining 119 Unity Schools would be shared by political elites and their stooges if the move sails through.
In a press statement signed by its National President, Comrade Shehu Mohammed, and the Secretary-General, Comrade Joshua Apebo, the Union recalled that the Prime Minister in the First Republic, Sir Tafawa Balewa in1966 conceived the idea of setting up Federal Government Colleges to be models of secondary education where Nigerian children irrespective of ethnic, social and economic backgrounds of their parents, will converge and interact in the Schools and begin to see themselves as Nigerians.
“Thus, the first three unity colleges were established in 1966 at Okposi (later moved to Enugu) for Eastern Region, at Warri for Western Region, and at Sokoto for Northern Region.
“Today, there are 120 Federal Government Colleges located in different parts of the Federation and they continue to provide quality education which make them first choices for prominent Nigerians to place their Children and Wards,” the union added.
They recalled that in 1978 as a military Head of State, General Olusegun Obasanjo, started the crusade that Federal Government should not run secondary school, a project he continued to pursue when he became a Civilian President in 1999, and thereafter proceeded to disarticulate the junior arms of the schools as a prelude to phasing out the unity schools.
“To checkmate the process, the union engaged the Government in prolonged dialogues, carried out a 7-week strike, took the matter to court and mobilized sister trade unions, students unions, parents/teachers Associations, civil society groups, leaders of thought, religious leaders, traditional rulers, etc., to resist the plot to sell unity schools to portfolios business persons. This struggle continued until July 2010 when President Goodluck Jonathan ordered the resumption of the junior components of the Unity Colleges and normalcy retuned to the Unity School System.
“It must be realized that once education becomes a commodity only for the rich, it will be a violation of section 18 of the 1999 constitution as amended which stipulates that Government shall provide free, compulsory and universal primary education; free secondary education; free university education; and free adult literacy programme,” the union emphasized.
According to the labour leaders, in the United States, there are about 20,000 to 24,000 Government-funded secondary schools; in the United Kingdom, about 4,180 to 4,200 Government-funded secondary schools; while in Germany, there are about 8,900 state-run schools.
“All these schools are funded and run free. Since these are capitalist societies, we do not know where Nigerian Politicians got the idea from that Government cannot run secondary schools.
“We have always canvassed the view that Old Boys Association and other private entreprenuers who wish to own secondary schools can set up their own instead of angling to convert unity colleges, the collective patrimony of Nigerians, into their private estates,” the union leaders emphasised.The labour leaders stated that once these schools are taken over by private entrepreneurs, they will convert them and the vast expanse of land thereof into hotels and shopping malls to satisfy their insatiable greed.
They advised the Federal Government not to cede the Unity Schools to private individuals.