TORTS OF NEGLIGENCE AND STUDENTS SAFETY IN SELECTED PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN RIVERS STATE

TORTS OF NEGLIGENCE AND STUDENTS SAFETY IN SELECTED PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN RIVERS STATE

BACKGROUND TO  THE  STUDY

Safety is an important aspect of human existence since it allows us to reduce the risks that may arise in any given situation. School safety, according to Abali & Nwokedi (2016), is an intrinsic and vital aspect of the teaching and learning process in schools, and it is a responsibility shared by all. Safety, on the other hand, can only be secured if the educational system is properly prepared. In order for students to acquire an excellent education, the school atmosphere must be conducive to learning as well as secure. However, in Nigerian educational system, teachers and administrators are established in a position to chastise students and ensure their safety through the implementation of acceptable rules and regulations in accordance with the theory of in-loco-parentis, or in the place of a parent. Schools are therefore social entities that provide full-time education to children between the ages of eleven or twelve and eighteen plus years old. According to Akpomi and Kio-Jack (2021_, they are comprised of board members, administrators, academic and non-academic personnel, and students from a varied range of ethnic, cultural, religious, political, and socio-economic backgrounds.

Importantly, secondary schools are changing where duties for safety and health management are being refocused, and when these obligations are not met, legal action may be taken against the school. Supporting the need for safety, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (2012) opined that safety is vital and must be tackled in a creative manner hence it should not be viewed as merely another legal burden or bureaucratic duty. Therefore, in order to provide successful educational services, it is essential that schools plan, organize, and maintain a secure and healthy environment for these types of students. More so, to establish  the overall safety and health of students within the schools, it is expected that everyone in the school administration chain of command play a part in this effort without negligence of duty of care.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

In any educational system, it is the responsibility of school authorities to provide for the needs of students while they are in the learning environment. Nonetheless, in our rapidly evolving and increasingly litigious world, negligence of duty  in school administration has become a common source of embarrassment to school authorities and teachers.  According to Arop and Ukpong (2018), negligence is a breach of a legal obligation to exercise reasonable care that results in harm to the plaintiff that is not wanted by the defendant  which also  referred to as a  negligence tort in legal terms. In their article on tort, Koko and Osasuwa (2019) defined it as a purposeful or negligent conduct that goes against a positional paradigm and results in harm or injury to a person or loss of live and property.  Strikingly, to prevent undesirable repercussions resulting from a lack of responsibility, school personnel are expected to display appropriate diligence in anything they are assigned to accomplish or supervise in the educational system.

Oddly enough, many of the accidents and events that result in hazard in secondary schools today are caused by a failure to manage safety and health in a responsible manner. According to Nweke (2015), there is  rise in the number of lawsuits filed as a result of school instructors or administrators  failing to exercise reasonable care for student as well school functionaries handle students in their charge with culpable disregard has become a major cause for concern. Despite the fact that there is a body of literature on tort liability in the educational system, non has focus on negligence and how it relates to student safety. Therefore upon this background that the researcher seeks to examine torts of negligence and students safety in selected public and private secondary schools in Rivers state.

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