(ANCOPSS) is an offshoot of the national body of this named association which was 

founded in 1956. From our inception here in the FCT upto this time, we have experienced

veritable progress in all spheres of our affairs and we are improving as to make our best 

input in ensuring that the ideal education for our children is not compromised.

 The All Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS) is a 

professional organisation of principals of post-primary schools approved by Government.

 Before 1956, principals from the three former regions in the country-eastern, 

northern, western and Lagos as the capital had forum individually where they met and 

discussed.

 The birth of the All Nigeria Conference of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS) therefore was as a result of the mandate of the Joint Consultative Committee on Education (JCCE) plenary meeting held on 16th and 17th April 1956, in Kaduna. That meeting directed the regional bodies of principals to widen and the association that emerged was called "Nigeria Conference of Principals".

In response to this directive, "Nigerian conference of principals" which later metamorphosed into the All Nigeria Conference of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS) was founded on January 3, 1957 when Thirty-two Principals of Schools met at the Nigeria College of Arts, Science and Technology, Ibadan. At the meeting which was chaired by Miss N.C Wedmore of St. Anne's School, Ibadan, delegates from the three regions and Lagos were in attendance.

The meeting elected its pioneer officers as follows:

President:- Mr. F.L. Evans, Okongwu Memorial Grammar School, Nnewi.

Secretary:- Dr J. A. Adegbite, Baptist Academy, Lagos.

Treasurer:- Mr. W.A Perkins, King's College, Lagos

The inaugural meeting also adopted the under-listed aims and objectives of the conference :

 

1. To discuss and find solutions to the nation's educational problems.
2. To provide an administrative forum where new and inexperienced principals will be helped to acquire management skills for the successful management of their schools.
3. To serve as a training ground for out-dated managers at schools.
4. To assess weaknesses in government educative programmes and offer solutions where such weaknesses are discovered and to offer consultancy services to national and regional governments where new educational policies are being designed for the nation.
5. To run seminars and workshops for subject teachers and non-teaching staff in order to improve performance.

 

These aims and objectives were later modified as follows:

 

1. To provide an opportunity for principals of Post-Primary Schools in Nigeria to exchange views and make recommendations on matters affecting education in Nigeria.
2. To present to government and the public an informed and independent body of opinions on such matters as in (a) above.
3. To publish findings on matters affecting education considered to be in the public interest.
4. To raise the standard of secondary school education through dedication to duty and all methods deemed fit by the conference to provide excellence.
5. To encourage research and experiments in education.

 

At the inaugural meeting, members also agreed to rotate their meetings. Following this, subsequent meetings were rotated from Enugu to Lagos and back to Ibadan and Enugu until 1962 when the northern principals had the opportunity to host in Zaria. Also worthy of mention is that as meetings were rotated, the Presidents were elected from the would-be hosting regions until 1974 when the new constitution approved a 2- year term of office. So far, the following presidents have moderated the affairs of our noble confederation.please click here to view the list.

Under the leadership of these noble colleagues, conference has continued to grow from strength to strength. As at today, the membership has grown from the initial 32 to over 13,000.

ANCOPSS owes a lot of gratitude to our founding fathers who laid a solid foundation for us and to the leaders who have seen the confederation through these fifty years of existence.

During these years, the scope of conference activities has continued to widen. At inception, conference held just one meeting annually (annual congress). As time went on, and with increase in membership, management of conference affairs became increasingly challenging. To address this, two executive council meetings in a year in addition to the pre-congress executive council meeting were introduced. The two executive council meetings were also on rotational basis and are hosted by "new" states without adequate facilities to host the annual congress. Theses meetings discussed themes and sub-themes that are thought-provoking and have provided an administrative forum where both new and old principals update their management skills.

In choosing the conference themes and sub-themes, conference has since inception been proactive and has on many occasions gone many years ahead of official ministry of education policies. As Miss J Steward put it "As long as 1967 our theme was "Secondary Education Policy for Nigeria- a national policy". 1969 saw "the need for vocational guidance" whilst 1974 discussed "education for all" Also, as educational policies change, themes are chosen and discussed highlighting their pros and cons and the best ways of implementing as well as the possible challenges, proffering solutions to the various problems so identified.

Apart from the improvement recorded in the organisation of our meetings, our noble confederation internationalized. Today ANCOPSS is a member of the International Confederation of Principals (ICP) and the African Convention of Principals (ACP). ANCOPSS hosted the secretariat of the ACP after hosting the body in August, 2006. It was at that meeting that the draft constitution was adopted. The 2006 edition of the meeting elected Chief Olisah as the President of ACP and Elder Yinka Lawuyi its secretary for a period of two years (2006-2008). Membership of these bodies has improved on our network and helped us to compare notes as we attend meetings outside the country.

In addition to this, confederation has, as part of her professional activities, continued to sustain her publications-The Nigerian Principal (introduced in 1980); The ANCOPSS National Directory (introduced in 1989) ; The News Letter (introduced in 1991); The Search Light (introduced in 2002) and the ANCOPSS Year Book (introduced in 2006).
These publications and the organisation of our Annual Academic competitions for our senior and junior school students, workshops organized for members and our teaching staff have been largely sustained by state governments and through their donations to our Endowment Fund since 1991 when it was launched.

As ANCOPSS celebrated her golden jubilee anniversary in 2007, the cordial relationship that exists between the Federal and State ministries of Education, the various levels of government, other stakeholders in the educational and our noble conference has been encouraging. Most of our ministries involve ANCOPSS from the policy making stages to their implementation stages. In those states, ANCOPSS is represented in most committees on educational matters and has lived up to expectation. Where this relationship exists the working climate has been wonderful and a lot have been achieved in secondary school education delivery.

The other activity of confederation worthy of mention is the recognition accorded our retired members who served the conference meritoriously through the award of The Principal Emeritus of Nigeria (PEN) award. This has also been sustained since 1984 when it was introduced. Added to the PEN award is the ANCOPSS Merit Award given to friends of our noble confederation who have contributed numerously to the development of education in the country .As part of our golden jubilee celebration we introduced a fellowship award .
While noble colleagues weathered the storms and have recorded all these achievements, the challenges facing us are enormous and varied. These challenges have continued to impede quality teaching and learning in the system.

The challenges include:

 

• Management of over-sized classes which is as a result of admitting students without regards to the recommended teacher - student ratio of 1:40 and the carrying capacity of schools.
• Dearth of teaching and non-teaching staff.
• Absence of a national commission for secondary education in Nigeria.
• Inadequate funding of the education system, as a result of poor budgetary allocation to cater for administrative and infrastructural development and maintenance.
• Eradication of examination malpractice in the system.
• Unnecessary politicization of education.
• Lack of monitoring mechanism that will enhance implementation of educational policies.
• Somersault of educational policies by successive governments, to mention but a few.

 

As we work towards achieving Education for All (EFA) goals by the year 2015, efforts should be made to improve on the facilities on ground to be able to cater for the increasing students population in our schools. While striving to run the 6-3-3-4 system of education which is both pre-vocational and academic and highly cost intensive, more effective modalities for adequate funding of her system should be explored.

The absence of practical training of the students at the junior secondary school and even the senior school students defeats the objective of the national policy of education. This has militated against the streaming policy as enunciated in the national policy on education. It has also worked against identifying the innate abilities of our students while in school. The dream of technological development of this country, as being canvassed, may be jeopardized. So far, the development of students vis-à-vis the use of the head, heart and hand with reference to the dignity of labour has not been given the needed prominence it deserves. This we must address now for a better tomorrow.

Noble colleagues, in all, we have every cause to celebrate our achievements so far. The system has continued to play its roles of preparing our students for useful living within the society against all odds. It has also provided students for higher education.

I believe that given a better working climate we shall do better. We thank the Almighty Father for all he has done for us all and for our conference all these years. We have indeed made giant strides in sustaining as well as improving secondary education delivery in this country, even where the operational environment and conditions have been highly inconducive. We have continued to improve on the image of our conference, especially with the establishment of a national secretariat in Abuja . The completion of the on-going project secretariat building should be seen as "A task that must be done " .All hands should be on deck towards its actualization.