The quilt story of the Vanguard on 10/3/25 was a tragic one for me as any person who attended Federal Authorities Faculty 50 years in the past. The title says all of it: “How Unity Colleges crashed from glory to dishonour.” The story listed a litany of woes like lack of primary amenities, struggle over PTA levies, and poor bathroom amenities. As an aged native physician (Soludo MUST not hear this), I went into my overused pores and skin bag and found an article I wrote on the matter 12 years in the past (25/6/13). It’s one other perspective on the place the rain began beating the Federal Authorities Schools. Vanguard targeted on amenities and funding; I targeted on processes and certain outcomes. Please, learn on.

I attended Federal Authorities Faculty Enugu for my HSC in 1975/77, and this was how I received my admission. About 5 kinds have been despatched from the State Ministry of Schooling, and the principal of Awka Etiti Excessive Faculty distributed them to his finest 5 college students, and I used to be the one arts pupil. We had an entrance examination and an interview that lasted three days, which was held on the momentary web site at Higher Chime Avenue, Enugu. Finally, I gained admission. I didn’t know anyone, and my mother and father didn’t must see any minister, governor or senator. I used to be the pioneer library prefect, and one among my deputies was Obioma Eziashi (now Mrs Imoke), who was then in the identical class with Lyel. I didn’t say that they have been as much as something then! The college had college students from all elements of the nation and from all social strata of society (kids of professors, DGs, headmasters, petty merchants, native farmers, company CEOs and distinguished professionals). There have been many college students from the north, nevertheless it was apparent that they have been ‘authorities pikins.’ I had punished one boy for not placing on his sandals, and his solely excuse was that his authorities had not despatched cash to restore the sandals. I reported the matter to the principal, and to my amazement, he requested me to go away the boy alone as a result of the state had not truly despatched his pocket cash! I didn’t discover it humorous that whereas my mother and father offered EVERYTHING I wanted, any person waited for the state authorities to restore his sandals! Anyway, I had three A-level papers (literature, historical past and economics), gained six prizes on the prize-giving day and was provided admission into 5 universities.

A few years later, my daughter took the widespread entrance, with Queens Faculty Lagos as her alternative. She handed, however that was the place the issue began. We’d go to the varsity on Monday and be requested to return on Tuesday; we’d go within the morning and be requested to return within the night till my daughter spent one complete time period at house and there was no admission. Most irritating was that no person might inform me what the precise challenge was! Folks have been bandying notes from this and that VIP in addition to some money and have been getting admitted! Anyway, I despatched her to a beautiful college (Louisville Ladies, Ijebu-Itele) the place she already had admission and the place the principal nonetheless took her within the second time period due to her efficiency within the entrance examination/interview and my pledge to take her again if she didn’t meet the necessities academically.

Learn additionally: Instructional crises: There was a Federal Authorities Faculty…

In the meantime, a streetwise acquaintance had suggested me to supply N40,000 for my daughter to be admitted at Shagamu as a northerner. I blatantly refused as a result of I didn’t see how I might go off my very own daughter as any person from the north simply to achieve an FGCC admission. As for my good friend in query, all his kids attended FGCs. And naturally after that debacle, none of my kids ever took FGC entrance exams once more.

I recalled all this once I learn Segun Adeniyi’s lamentations concerning the laughable and disturbing 2013 cut-off marks for our FGCs. (ThisDay, 13/6/13). Candidates from Anambra should rating 139 for admission, and for Imo, Enugu, and Lagos, it was 138, 134, and 4, and 133. Nevertheless, a boy from Yobe wanted to attain ONLY 2, and his sister, 27. For Zamfara, they want 4 and a pair of marks.

Thus, laborious work is punished whereas indolence is rewarded, and pupils from Anambra, as an illustration, are being punished for the efforts of their mother and father in encouraging them to go to highschool. Moreover, boys from Yobe dwell in Anambra, Lagos or Abuja and attend the identical college as Emeka or Kunle. So, how do you clarify this one-Nigeria coverage to the unfortunate boy from Anambra, Imo or Lagos? Why gained’t the states encourage their mother and father and kids to take education severely in the event that they actually need to go to highschool? I doubt if an individual who scores 2 out of 200 can write his title, and so, will he be in the identical class with the man who scored 139, taught by the identical academics, and write the identical WAEC, NECO, and JAMB, or will there at all times be a cut-off? How can we develop as one nation with asinine insurance policies like this?

In September 1975, I gained admission into FGCE purely on advantage. When it received to the flip of my daughter, understanding any person and paying some cash have turn into key determinants. In 2013, those that scored 1% [2/200] are being admitted into the system. This evidences progressive retrogression in our instructional system. How can one successfully educate the one that scored 2/200 [1%] and the one that scored 139/200 [70%] in the identical class? And I ask: is it the identical FGC that I attended that the man who scored 1 p.c will attend? Certainly, there was a Federal Authorities Faculty…!