OYOKU ASANG—PUPILS reluctantly recline and sit on the floor in
ramshackle classrooms to learn at public primary schools in Oyoku Asang
and Okisu communities, Okobo Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State
because of the state government’s inability to provide them adequate
chairs, benches and other basic education requirements. Uncomfortable
parents/guardians are pulling out their children/wards in their numbers
from the ramshackle public primary schools, citing unspeakable
infrastructure decay and neglect by the state government.
Findings
by Niger Delta Voice showed that pupils, indeed, sit down on bare floor
to be taught at Government Primary School, Oyoku Asang, due to lack of
chairs, while teachers deployed to the schools by government typically
abandon their posting. We also learned that the Government Primary
School, Oyoku, has only one decrepit block of four classrooms forcing
primary four and five pupils to squeeze themselves into one classroom.
The
pitiable situation has been like that since 2008 and several complaints
by the community to the State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB,
have not yielded positive results.
Why we withdraw our children
One
of the villagers, who identified herself as Amasi, said that the poor
state of schools in the area was responsible for the low population as
many parents decided to remove their children from the schools accusing
government of insensitivity to the plight of the pupils in the area. She
complained that pupils whose parents could not afford the fees charged
by private schools with better facilities eventually become dropouts.
Clan head laments neglect
At
Eweme, Ward 1 in Okisu village, the clan head, Chief Ukwa Ukwa Onoh,
said: “Government has neglected this area. It is a very serious
situation that all the public schools in the whole of this area is
facing the same problem of decayed and non-existent lack of
infrastructure, no seats, no classroom blocks. “Government has not done
anything for this area to improve the situation. The same situation you
saw at Government Primary school in Oyoku Asang is the same thing with
the school here in Okisu.”
He further said: “This is sad and we
have reported to the State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, many
times to come to our help, but as you can see, this is simply a
neglected and abandoned area. I am still appealing to government to look
into our situation as soon as possible.”
It’s regrettable— Headmaster
A
headmaster at one of the schools, who spoke on grounds of anonymity,
said that he usually sent the pupils home whenever it rained because the
roofs were leaking. “The state of this school has been like this for so
many years and because of that teachers posted to the school do not
stay. Parents are not bringing their children here. It is an unfortunate
situation. We have been trying to draw the attention of government
since 2008, but you know government has so many things that it is doing.
We are hoping that one day government will remember this area,” he
said.
Gov Emmanuel is committed to schools’ upgrade
Commissioner
for Information and Communication, Mr. Aniekan Umanah, said the present
administration was committed to education and would continue with the
construction and renovation of schools across the state through the
Inter-ministerial Direct Labour Committee.
“These are people-
oriented programmes and Governor Udom Emmanuel has made it very clear
that he appreciates those programmes and will sustain these programmes
because the programmes are in the interest of the people of Akwa Ibom
State. Right now, you will see so many inter ministerial jobs. We have
started in many local government areas and the construction and
reconstruction will continue,” he said.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/01/unbelievable-pupils-still-sit-lie-on-floor-in-a-ibom-communities-schools/
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