4 Reasons You Should Not Enroll Your Child in Boarding Schools in Nigeria

Many people have bragged about how ‘tough’ boarding schools made them. Some of them argue that it is the reason they can ‘survive life’ because the experience made them tough, and the toxicity on the campuses taught them many valuable lessons.

In any conversation about schools in Nigeria, individuals or groups of people who attended a boarding school (a ‘Boarder’) would gratify their experiences and somewhat make those that graduated from a ‘Day’ school jealous and inferior.

Arguably, as factual as all these claims seem to the boarding school graduates, it closes their eyes to the reality of the destructive effects of boarding schools on their personality, mental health, and their future.

This article is all about the destructive reasons you should not enroll your child or ward in a boarding school in Nigeria. Some of these reasons affect the future of individuals (boarders) and society. Of course, this is about the old boarding school systems, although it touches on some events in the new boarding school systems.

Some graduates of Nigerian boarding schools shared their living experiences on a website in 2010. The read is partly a redefinition of the ‘inhumane’ treatment and an exposition. Have a read for yourself here.

Severed Parent-Child Bond

Parenting is a big deal. Parents/guardians need to spend quality time with their child/ward/children to form the personalities they desire to see in them.

Schools generally take away lots of the time parents can have with their children; an average of 9 hours daily for a student of ‘Day’ school, and three months in the year, for a boarding school student.

As ‘great’ and relieving as it seems to put your kids in a boarding school, try to avoid it. Time is an advantage for good parenting.

The more time a parent/guardian who intends to be good spends with their child/ward/children, the more they are likely to impact the child, understand their insecurities, address peer pressures, etc. In short, to care for the general well-being of their child.

Children that are confined to the four walls of a boarding school, with a 2-day parent visiting day per term, spending more time with teachers, non-teaching staff, other students, classrooms, and books than their parents, will become more of the things or people they spend time with than the ones they did not.

Some of these children go back home broken, and others resent their parents for pushing them into the school in the first place. Some evolve to enjoy toxic companies and environments, etc.

Mental damage

Bullying is one of the biggest problems in boarding schools. There are numerous accounts of bullying, some of which have led to the dehumanization or death of students.

Mental problems such as depression, anxiety disorders, and other personality disorders ensue from the traumatic treatments in boarding schools by seniors, cultist groups, or classmates.

The story of the tragic death of Sylvester Oromoni of Dowen College Lekki is the ultimate result of bullying.

Interestingly, these bullyings and inhumane treatments are the pride of many ‘boarders.’ They claim the experience made them strong to survive in life. They flaunt their scars and dislocations to intimidate people that did not go to boarding.

Contrary to this belief and flauntings, these scars are simply reminders of the inhumane conditions they experienced. This behavior can pass as an illustrative example of Stockholm Syndrome.

The boarding schools are not military training grounds, but boarders think otherwise. Sadly, this is a symptom of mental disorder, not accepting the reality of a situation or passing off a painful experience as a ‘fun’ one.

Every ‘Boarder’ had schadenfreude at one point in their lives!

Aside from the concerns above, there are other consequences of subjection to abuse and bullying. A research material published a few years ago identified the following implications of physical abuse and bullying;

• Insecurities
• Physical health consequences include headaches, bruises, injuries, fractures, sleep disturbances, or somatization.

Read more here https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK390414/

Deluded Perception of Superiority

In Nigeria, people argue about their depth of poverty and suffering to exert some form of superiority over each other. Others, like boarders, claim their experiences make them superior to ‘day’ students. They say it makes them tough, tolerant, enduring, immune, and unbreakable.

This delusional belief has led to many societal rifts and segregation. Some ‘Boarders’ have been taken up on their words and subjected to dehumanizing conditions at work, higher institutions, and families.

Exposure to Social Vices

Being a ‘Boarder’ means more extended exposure to social vices that affect personalities and convictions. These vices include; drug dealing, prostitution, abortions, gay and lesbianism, cultism, hooliganism, thuggery, and so on.

Boarders are more prone to social restructuring than students of ‘day’ schools. This kind of restructuring is usually by peers, a group of people you should not trust to train a child.

All these effects affect the future in depts that are unmeasurable. That is why you should not enroll your child or ward in a boarding school, even if the school is owned and run by a religious missionary organization.

P.S: All Images were sourced on google