Queens College, Lagos, a foremost secondary school for girls’ education, and an acclaimed Unity College in Nigeria, came into being in October 1927, as a bridge of the gap created by the limited scope of secondary education for girls at that time.

Established as model for academic excellence, strong character, moral uprightness, quality and sustainable education, the school was originally named Government Secondary School for Girls, before being renamed Queen’s College on April 12, 1928.

With an enviable pedigree of moral uprightness, right values and self-discipline, Queens College is widely renowned and almost revered for consistency in quality and all round education for the girl child.

•Sanitising and fixing of outdated equipment in progress

Since the exit of the pioneering principal, Miss Faith Wordsmith (later Mrs. Faith Tolfree), in 1930, 23 predecessors have steered the ship of the school to date, even as the student population has reportedly grown above 4,000.

But these are not the best of times for the College as it has run into troubled waters. Students, parents, teachers, old girls and other acquaintances have had cause to be worried about fortunes of the 90-year-old educational institution in recent times. Their worries revolve around some core values of the school that have come into the spotlight.

Reports of questionable standards of hygiene, sanitation, water supply, among others are currently making the rounds. Although they began to rear head few years back; these issues deepened towards end of 2016 and came to a climax in February, following the death of two students a fortnight apart.

The students, according to reports, died at home but revelations later linked their deaths to an alleged suspected outbreak of gastrointestinal infections, manifesting as diarrhoea and vomiting, as a result of contamination of the school’s water system.

Dozens of other students were said to have been hospitalised for similar reasons at different times before and after the deaths.

The first death involving a 13-year-old JSS2 student elicited concerns. The second death obligated the Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, to step in, visiting the school and setting up an investigation panel to unravel the immediate and remote causes surrounding the causalities.

Controversy that has trailed the death of the two students is yet to abate and even as preliminary findings of the report have been released, details are yet to be made public. Earlier, a fact finding panel from the Ministry of Education had raised queries over the poor facilities, dreadful sanitation and less than optimal sources of water.

In the last couple of weeks, however, the girls have remained at home on extended mid-term break following extensions authorised by the Ministry of Education. The management had earlier shifted the resumption date from 26th February, 2017 to 5th March 2017 in order to investigate the deaths.

Even as results of the findings of the investigation are yet to be made public, the resumption date was again shifted to Sunday,  March 19, 2017, in order to address the nagging problems of water shortage, sanitation and student accommodation, among others.

The Parent’s Teachers Association, PTA; School Based Management Committee, SBMC, and the Queens College Old Girls Association, QCOGA announced the extension in a statement: “Dear parents, the Hon Minister of Education has approved the extension of the resumption for Queens College to allow for full fumigation, complete overhaul of the hostels/dining hall and reticulation of water from the new source from the Lagos State Water Board.

There are problems with the toilets, kitchen, water system, and most of the facilities in general.

Toilet facilities are inadequate for the students’ population and this contributes to the unsanitary conditions in the school. Overstretched, they began to collapse under the combined pressure of increasing student population and poor maintenance.

Queens College has been suffering acute water shortage over the years since the school’s main water treatment plant, installed more than three decades ago, went into a bad state of disrepair as a result of irregular maintenance.

The average daily water consumption has remained unmet in the last few years, since the 100,000 gallon tank of the treatment plant was replaced with a 15,000 gallon tank.

It all began when the industrial water treatment plant, installed more than three decades ago, broke down more as a result of irregular maintenance rather than old age.

There are a lot of leakages as a result of the high iron content. Evacuation of the entire media inside the plant is required, in addition to flushing it out properly, repainting with anti- rust and then replacing the filtration media.

There is dearth of water to the students despite the presence of multiple boreholes. Water does not flow to all the floors of the hostels due to the non-functioning of the industrial water treatment, which has the required high pressure capacity (about 10 bar) to pump the water. Absence of reliable alternative source of power often disrupts pumping of water.

The treatment plant in which the median has expired has causes damage to the pipes and there are quite a lot of pipe leakages, further reducing the pump pressure of water to the reservoir.

Water engineers are optimistic that the 35-year-old plant is still viable if the faults are corrected and the plant is maintained continuously.

On the orders of the new Principal, efforts are on to revive  the 500-feet deep industrial borehole sunk over three decades ago, and also remains viable, even though it was last serviced three years ago. The expired filtration media and facilities are being renewed.

Such comprehensive maintenance that should normally be yearly was last carried out almost a decade ago. So gradually, restoration of the water plant for provision of enough safe and clean water is ongoing. The fumigation exercise is just another of the measures being taken to redress the series of problems. The hope is that before, long, Queens College will attain her lost glory.