The case of Darasimi highlights the danger many children in crèches, nursery and primary and even secondary schools are exposed to by school administrators and teachers who care about nothing more than the money their schools are making. For some families, by the time they know the truth about the dangers their children are exposed to at school, it is too late.
This was the case of Mr. David Adeboye (not real name) who lost his son to the wicked antics of the teachers at a day-care in Lagos a few weeks ago. Both Adeboye and his wife are busy career parents in Lagos, who realised they needed to enrol their child in a crèche as they were out of the house for most part of the day, it was learnt. Few weeks ago, Adeboye received a call from his son’s school. The boy of less than two months old was dead. Wracked by grief and having lost his son in a controversial circumstance, he called for an autopsy of the boy’s body. That was when the doctors made a grim discovery, A family source who is familiar with the case told our correspondent, “The autopsy result showed that the boy had been consistently fed a sleeping drug over a period of time. The parents did not know the crèche was putting the children in their care to sleep with the use of sleeping drugs in order to give the teachers a respite from their regular crying. “Over time, the drug was said to have overwhelmed the boy’s system to the extent that he slept in the crèche and never woke up again.” The case is ongoing and the source did not want the names of the school and parents mentioned at the moment. Putting children to sleep with drugs is a fairly common practice, although highly illegal, among day cares and crèches in the country.A parent was searching for a kindergarten for her child, she was told by her friends to avoid the ones where teachers drug pupils rather than go through the stress of controlling them.
The woman, Mrs. Michelle Fijabi, whose son is now five and in a primary school, said she agreed with her husband that their child should be able to speak before he was enrolled in school after they were told about such practices. She said, “At least, a child who can speak would be able to tell you what happened in school. When I heard about the drugging of little children to put them to sleep, it scared me. “We were actually looking for a kindergarten at the time because we were both working. But we had to later look for a house help to stay with our child in the house while we went to work. “Even despite that, we still had to plead with a neighbour to help check on our child once in a while so that the house help too wouldn’t endanger his life.” She explained that when she eventually decided to enroll her child in school, she specifically looked for safety and cleanliness in schools she considered. Mrs. Victoria Osagie, who narrated how the daughter of her friend came home with a fracture from school without the knowledge of the mother. Osagie, who is also a teacher in a private primary school, said, “The child fell down from a bed in the crèche and broke her arm. The teachers just parked her up and said nothing when the mother came to pick her up. “It was when she was flinching at any slight touch of the arm when the mother was bathing her at home that she realised something was really wrong. When they took her to the hospital and confirmed she had a fracture, the child had to wear a Plaster of Paris for about eight months. Some crèches are very dangerous.” Some crèches go to the extreme length of tying the leg of a child they perceive as excessively troublesome to a chair. As outrageous as this may sound, a young petty trader, who witnessed this in a crèche at Iju area of Lagos said, “Sometimes I go from school to school showing my customers new shoes to sell. I went to the crèche to deliver a pair of sandals when I saw a child’s leg tied with a piece of cloth. “I thought it was a form of punishment and wondered what the child did. But one of the teachers said the child was always crawling outside and almost hit his head on a step. The teacher was so tired of running after the child that she tied one of her legs with a long piece of cloth and attached it to the leg of a chair.” A child protection expert, Mr. Akinropo Akinola, who also reacted to the story of Darasimi, the caustic soda victim, voiced his concern about child abuse and negligence in Nigerian schools. “When you think all is well with our child protection policy in most private schools, this cancerous menace of negligence will rear its ugly head again. The child abuse and the sheer neglect of the protection of the interests of the child continued progressively and habitually unabated, unchecked and has surfaced before our very eyes,” he said. The issue of teacher-perpetrated abuse of children in schools raised by Akinola was at the centre of the case of a three-year-old girl, Haliya Abolore, who died from burn injuries at the Gbagada General Hospital, Lagos on November 4, 2015. Haliya was reportedly forced by her class teacher to sit on a hot water container as a punishment at a private school in Idoluwo Street, Dosunmu, Lagos Island. The police are still investigating the case. Experts speak on ‘schoolpreneurs’ Akinola said some of the Nigerian private primary schools don’t seem to understand that a learning institute is for the growth and development of children. “Everything to them starts with profit and ends with profit, without the corresponding value-based productive inputs. Only the lucky pupils suffer bodily attacks. The unlucky ones may not live to tell what fate has brought them in the hands of ‘schoolpreneurs’,” the child protection expert said. Highlighting the lapses that led to the severe caustic soda injuries of Darasimi, Akinola said there was no justification for setting up a soap making shop within the school premises, let alone in the classroom. He also highlighted the following lapses of the boy’s school among others, “Flagrant display of objects and lethal chemicals capable of injuring pupils unknowingly; the insensitivity of the teacher to the plight of the boy when he was crying for water; inhuman nature of the staffers in failing to inform the parents of the boy immediately the incident happened; open display of child care ignorance on the part of the proprietress as reflected in her lame attitudes and excuses towards the medical attention of baby Darasimi. As of the time of filing this report, no concrete efforts have been made by the school authorities to alleviate the plight of the ailing boy, even good enough to support the meagre earnings of Darasimi’s parents.” He said there is need for private schools to have a Child Care Protection Policy paper, which parents must ask for before enrolling their children. Exective Director of Project Alert on Violence Against Women, Dr. Josephine Effa-Chukwuma, who also reacted to Darasimi’s case, wondered why such a dangerous chemical should be anywhere near children. She said, “Why would a teacher leave caustic soda around a class with little children running around and touching things? “First of all, the teacher who had the immediate responsibility of caring for the child should be arrested and prosecuted along with the school proprietor or proprietress. She should be made to pay all the medical bills of the child. The school should be closed down until school inspectors from the ministry of education inspect it.” Executive Director of the Christianah Fate Foundation, Mrs. Christianah Akindolie, said there is need for parents to pay occasional unscheduled visits to the schools of their children in order to see what is going on in such schools. She said child protection is one of the most important things a school should accord consideration. Akindolie stated, “For instance, in the case of Darasimi, I realised that the school administrator informed the parents about the soap making and none of them raised any eyebrow. This shows that they don’t even have their children in mind. “Before parents enrol their children in any school, they should consider the environment and ensure that it is conducive. Are the teachers trained in child protection? What about electrical fittings? Are they safe for children? “If the government is not doing enough to conduct regular inspections to ensure private schools are safe(which they should), parents should take it upon themselves to look out for things that may harm their children. “People don’t pay attention to little things. Even the chairs are important. Some children sit and their legs are hanging above the ground. That is not good when you have to sit for many hours. Their feet have to be on the floor. These are the little things that affect the performance of children in school.” Parents shifting responsibility to day cares. However, as reactions to the ill-treatment of children by nursery schools have been harsh, some experts have also opined that more parents now shift their biological responsibility of nurturing their children while they are still young to schools. They say this is why many parents would rush off their children to school before the children can even walk.
One of such experts, Mr. Taiwo Akinlami, a lawyer and child protection specialist, explained that it is unfortunate that schools are taking over the primary care of children. He said, “There are four rings of child protection. They are the family, community, state and the international community. The community cannot play the role of the family while the international community cannot play the role of the state. The main responsibility of the last three rings is to strengthen the family, which is the primary caregiver. “The community, where the school is located, cannot play the role of the family because its role is to strengthen the family. Unfortunately the society is upside down. The community is taking over the primary care of children. “I know parents cannot stay with their children all day long. The issue is not really about whether parents take a child to a nursery school or crèche at a tender age. The issue is whether such parents do due diligence before deciding where to put their children. “The main reason some parents put their children in nursery school or crèche is proximity, it does not matter whether the teachers are pedophiles or abusers or criminals. “Parents are not even aware of the things to consider before putting their children in school. For instance, it has become globally important for any establishment dealing with children to have training in child protection. Many parents don’t know what questions to ask when they take their children to a school. If what you call ‘good school’ is a place where you take and abandon your child, that is not a good school. A good school is one you take your child to and you partner with them in caring for the child.”
- PUNCH NEWSPAPER
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