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‘classroom’ with welder
You think we’re in the 21st century? Well, for pupils and
teachers of a primary school in Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital, it is back to
the Stone Age. Unlike their counterparts housed in serene teaching environments
in other parts of the nation’s capital, pupils and teachers of Wuye LA Primary
School, Abuja, located just two kilometres from Utako District and six
kilometres from the administrative block of the Federal Capital Territory
Administration (FCTA), have been completely abandoned by the authorities.
Since the government demolished the temporary structure put up
by the school’s Parents-Teachers Association (PTA), the pupils and their
teachers have moved their ‘classroom’ under a dangerous locust beans tree
located in the compound of the Federal Government Boys’ College, Wuye.
When the Commissioner of the FCT Public Complaints Commission
(PCC), Hon. Obunike Ohaegbu, led a team of journalists and staffers of the
commission to the sight, what the team met on ground was horrible. Beyond the
pathetic situation of receiving classes under a tree, the ‘school’ also shares
the little space with a welder. The artisan’s work tools seemed to pose more
danger to the pupils and their teachers than the tree itself. Electrical
appliances used by the technician were seen scattered around with the sound of
the power generator, located in the same place, disrupting the classes.
Speaking to Daily Sun, the headmaster of the school, Mr.
Muhammed Kolo, revealed that education inspectors had visited the school under
the tree, lamenting that no one expressed any concern. He added that the
teachers had no teaching boards to use. He added that officials of Development
Control, who destroyed the building with bulldozers, had since converted them
to another use, thereby compounding the woes of the teachers and pupils.
Some teachers, who didn’t want their names mentioned, said no
serious academic activity had taken place since they were displaced. They noted
that they were initially displaced by the Development Control Department before
the Minister of State for Education, Mr. Nyesom Wike, ordered that they should
be thrown out of the uncompleted building they were temporally using. According
to Kolo: “We were using the Federal Government Boys’ College’s structure.
Without even informing us, they just dismantled everything. They
even damaged some of our furniture. When we resumed and realised that we have
been moved out, I immediately reported the case to the PTA chairman, who took
it up. I have written to the board to come to our aid. We are yet to hear from
them.”
He spoke further: “Whenever it rains, we have to send the pupils
home. The same thing happens when the sun becomes unbearable. So, we usually
teach the pupils between 8a.m and 12noon. We just arrange them under the tree
and teach them.” The chairman of the school’s PTA, Mr. Ibrahim Al-Hassan, who
is at the heart of the struggle to ensure that the appropriate authorities
respond to their yearnings, recalled that previous efforts to get the attention
of the relevant FCTA agencies had not been successful.
His words: “Some years back, the community put up a temporary
structure for the school in an open place. When the road contract was awarded
to a foreign firm, they came and marked the place for demolition. The
Development Control Department of the FCTA came and demolished the structure.
“That was how we moved over to the uncompleted structure of the Federal Government
Boys’ College, Wuye. The Minister of State for Education came and ordered that
we should vacate the premises within one week. We pleaded with him since he was
actually the education minister and in a way, this problem falls under him. But
he refused to listen, insisting that the responsibility didn’t fall under his
jurisdiction.
After the notice, we ran to the Universal Basic Education Board
(UBEC) who ordinarily runs the school system. All the letters of appeal we have
written to them have been thrown out and they have refused to listen to us. “We
have also made efforts to reach out to the chairman of Abuja Municipal Area
Council (AMAC), but his aides have refused to allow us see him. It was after
making all these efforts that we finally ran to the Public Complaints
Commission (PCC) to come to our rescue. We are begging PCC to mount pressure on
the appropriate authorities to do the right thing.
We need them to relocate the school to its permanent site and
save the pupils and teachers of the hazards of staying under the tree.” The FCT
Commissioner of PCC, Obunike Ohaegbu who was bewildered at the absurd learning
environment, said he planned the on-the-spot visit to the school after
receiving a petition from the school’s PTA chairman and reading the report of
the commission’s investigator, who had initially visited the place earlier to
assess the situation. According to him, the abandoned school happens to be the
only public primary school at Wuye District. “I am shocked to see pupils from
Primary 1 to 6 staying under the same tree and receiving classes.
They are sharing the same tree with a welder, as this is a
welder’s workshop,” he lamented. The angry commissioner said he couldn’t
understand how the pupils and teachers cope whenever it rains. He added that he
was told that UBEB still supplies them materials under such a condition. While
absorbing the Minister of State for Education of any blame, he surprise that
the Development Control Department of Abuja Metropolitan Management Council
demolished the school’s structures without an alternative arrangement made for
the pupils.
The PCC Commissioner, after the inspection of the school, led
his team to the office of the FCT Universal Basis Education Board (UBEB)
Chairman, Alhaji Umar Barau Ningi. The chairman commended the commissioner for
his efforts in following up the case. “If all public officers are as active as
you are, Nigeria will change,” he said. He owned up that the board had been
informed of the school’s challenges during a briefing but said they had
problems of funding, which he said had now been released by the authorities of
the FCTA.
He said the FCT minister had released the administration’s 50
per cent requirement to them, noting that officials of the board were presently
defending their action plan at the UBEB headquarters. The chairman further
added that the FCT minister had given them a place to site a new school for the
LEA Primary School, Wuye, adding that a permanent school would be built soon.
“Before the rain starts, the children will surely be sheltered,”
he promised. Investigations by Daily Sun revealed, however, that contrary to
the promise by the UBEB chairman, there are no signs of any school being
erected at the moment, even as the rainy season might commence in less than
four months.
Source: Sun
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