•Parents reward workers
Principal, Federal Science and Technical College (FSTC), Yaba, Rev Chris Ugorji, has said the school was forced to convert three classrooms into hostels to accommodate about 300 newly-admitted pupils.
This is the second time the school has to provide makeshift accommodation to accommodate its boarding pupils. Last session, the college converted some classrooms to hostels because of the same problem. The classrooms were later vacated when the last set of SS3 pupils graduated in July.
In an interview with The Nation, Ugorji said the school has partitioned one of its multipurpose halls into five classrooms until it is able to address the acute shortage of hostels to house most of its over 4,000 pupils.
The school is depending on the PTA to complete its 1,200-bed female hostel project as an immediate solution to the accommodation crisis.
Ugorji said the management was forced to convert the classrooms to hostels when it could not accommodate all those who applied to be admitted into the boarding house.
Disgruntled parents of pupils who were not accepted had accused the school management of favouritism in the selection process.
However, the principal refuted the claim, noting that as the unity school with the largest population of pupils in the country, it faced the challenge of not being able to accommodate all its pupils, especially in a metropolitan state like Lagos.
“We have converted three hostels into classrooms. The hostel can accommodate about 300 students. The multipurpose hall has been converted into five make-shift classrooms for now. Parents are very happy about the development. The students will start coming in from tomorrow (yesterday) from 4pm because we do not want it to disrupt school activities. They will be checked in until Friday. We want them to settle down because Saturday is visiting day,” he said.
Meanwhile the Parents/Teachers Association (PTA) recently organised an awards programme to appreciate workers of the school.
Speaking on the hostel project which has reached roofing level, the PTA Chairman, Mrs Oby Ugwillo, said the project would be completed before the year ends.
The project has been slowed down by a controversy in the association over an audit of how the N30,000 paid by each pupil of the school last session was spent.
Mrs Ugwillo said the PTA executives would call a congress once the project was ready.
Speaking on the workers’ appreciation programme, she said the PTA recognised the efforts workers make to educate their wards and decided to reward them.
At the programme, she announced that teachers with children in the school would only pay 50 per cent of PTA levies. She also promised the association would give all teachers a Christmas package this year, just like the last.
“The PTA recognizes that when members of staff are appreciated, they will do more. They train our children not only in academic but in morals,” she said.
The association presented all the workers with various gifts categorized according to their grade levels.
In addition, special prizes were awarded to outstanding workers, including: Mr Jamiu Oyelami (best science teacher); Mr M. Ajetunmobi (best technical teacher); and Mrs Funmilayo Raphael (best non-academic staff).
