Help wake up Negri Primary School from its slumber

NPS can no longer count itself among the best-performing schools. A long time ago, NPS was one of those schools we were all proud of. Coming from such a school provided a good foundation for a bright future. At that time, the quality of learning was among the best – thanks to the astute administration of the missionaries. 

You joined secondary education with a lot of confidence. The English that they spoke was admirable. Pupils sat in organised classrooms, and accommodation facilities were state-of-the-art. Today, I struggle to talk positively about my former school. 

Things at NPS have been slowly declining. The school infrastructure has deteriorated. The school’s sanitation is poor, with broken toilet and shower systems. Pupils sit behind broken desks in classrooms during their learning. 

Lighting fixtures in classrooms are non-functional. You wonder whether pupils attend evening studies with such unserviceable lighting facilities. Classrooms lack doors and even window panes to define a proper learning environment. 

These are basic amenities to fix for a well-meaning school administrator. The school population has gone down significantly. In the old days, NPS had a manageable population of about 500 pupils. A class would accommodate between 40 and 50 pupils. Today, this is not the case. 

PLE candidates from last year were only 15, unlike 34 when we sat many years ago. At NPS, you wonder where the school administrators left the managerial skills and planning that were bequeathed to them by their predecessors.

Recall that the predecessors in this school were Europeans. The church missionaries ran the school very well at the time. We expect the few local staff around the missionaries to have learnt the managerial principles from these missionaries. 

You would expect them to be able to maintain the quality standards at the school the way they received from their predecessors. But when the missionaries handed administration of NPS to local staff, something went amiss. We began to see the poor performance of pupils and this has been the case for many years. 

A poorly managed school cannot bring the best out of pupils. The newly emerging schools, on the other hand, continue to take the shine off the old schools. We beg the governing bodies of these declining schools not to wait longer to bring changes. 

The alumni of these schools can come together but will only do so much. They have limitations. To dig former schools out of the deep hole is not a responsibility for alumni. We think we should advocate for a sustainable way of helping our former schools. 

The government must come out strongly to regulate these schools. The government can even establish a more efficient regulatory framework. Through an ‘Education Regulatory Authority (ERA), we can cause change.’

But be careful that ‘ERA’ belongs to another government agency. So, get a name for this regulatory entity. Empower this ERA to regulate matters of education. Top on the plate of the ERA is to audit schools for compliance.

Also, review the disparities in fees among schools. Know that quality cannot come cheaply, as we address these disparities to stop exorbitant levies on parents. So, help my NPS to wake up from its sleep and work to maintain standards.

Simon J. Mone, Civil Engineer, [email protected]