Three pupils of Je’nisi Little Drops International School, Lugbe in the Federal Capital Territory have died after their school bus caught fire on Thursday, February 1.
The pupils were asleep when the fire started.
One of them died instantly in the fire while the two others died on Saturday in a hospital.
President, National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), FCT chapter, Samira Jamira, described the death as shocking and disastrous in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Monday.
Mrs Jamira said the association had made it a point of duty to sensitise school authorities on the need to take adequate security measures to ensure the safety of school children while in school.
“It is so sad that lives were lost. We have done so many training for teachers, school drivers and school owners to ensure safety.
“But it is not everyone that attends our meeting; some of the school owners are not even our members.
“We will also continue to engage school owners and give them the advice we can, we cannot force them to do the needful because enforcement comes from the regulatory agencies.’’
Jamira, however, called on the FCT administration and regulatory agencies to be alive to their responsibilities toward safety of pupils in school.
According to her, these regulatory bodies are supposed to embark on inspections of school to ascertain the level of security vis-a-vis security gadgets like fire extinguisher and the likes.
She added that the regulatory bodies should ensure that buses used in conveying school pupils were in order with all the security gadgets.
“School owners must ensure that their buses are safe, of course sometimes some things happen but you must ensure the buses are in good condition.
“The drivers should also know the safety measure to take when such thing happens and also the mode of communication is very important to assist in case of emergency.
“On our part as an association, we will continue to train and sensitise school owners on safety measures in schools,” the president said.
Jamira, therefore, sympathised with the families of the children who lost their lives.
Je’nisi Little Drops International School was under lock as at the time of filing this report.
