Despite a whopping N9billion sunk into rescuing the visible decay in primary school infrastructure in Niger State, Justina Asishana reports that facilities remain in deplorable conditions, with pupils receiving lessons on bare floors and under trees.
ROOFLESS classrooms, broken floors, over-crowded classes and lack of furniture are some of the common features of primary schools across Niger State. As a result, pupils are forced to take lessons, sitting on bare floor and at the mercy of the elements.
At Kwangwara UBE Primary School in Kontagora, Niger State, it was a pitiable sight. In Class 2A, which offers a slightly different sight, the ceiling and roof have been cut into half, obviously by rainstorm. The Nation’s finding revealed that the situation has been like that for at least three years. When the reporter visited the school, the sun rays fell directly on the pupils sitting on the bare floor.
This school is one of the 3, 034 primary schools in the state; but unfortunately more than half the number bear similar features. Not less than 2000 of these schools have dilapidated classrooms without furniture, forcing nearly 500,000 pupils to take lessons sitting on bare floor. This is more than 80 per cent of the entire primary school population in the state put at about 635,747.
The level of infrastructural dilapidation in primary schools in Niger state can be said to be shocking, in view of the quantum of funds that has purportedly been expended on upgrading schools in the state.
Huge Education Budgets
Out of a total sum of N17 billion allocated to the education sector between 2012 and 2016, not less than N9 billion is said to have been spent on infrastructure development in primary schools in the state.
A breakdown of the budget for primary education in the five years under review shows that in 2012, N1.7 billion was budgeted; N1.4 billion in 2013, N1.4billion in 2014, N1.13 billion in 2015 and N90 million in 2016.
Meanwhile, an additional sum of N8.8 billion was budgeted for the construction and provision of public schools between 2013 to 2016 while N3.93 billion was budgeted for the rehabilitation and repairs of public schools during the period under review.
However, there is no evidence on ground to show that these funds were spent on any of these capital projects. A good number of schools visited in some local government areas in the state do not appear to have benefited from these funds as they had nothing to show as evidence. Not only are the schools dilapidated, pupils are forced to take lessons in classrooms without roofs and on bare floors. And whenever it rains, there are no lessons, as pupils have to hobble together to avoid being drenched.
The tale of decaying infrastructure remains the same from Niger South through Niger North to Niger East.
Lack of furniture, falling roofs and ceilings
In Kontagora, Niger North Senatorial District, 30 out of the 53 primary schools in the local government council are in dire need of urgent rehabilitation. Eleven of the schools have classroom buildings but no desks and chairs while 37 lack adequate seats and desks. Three of the schools have no building at all and pupils have to sit under the sun each day to take their classes.
In Zango Primary School, a school with a pupil population of 1,320, lessons are held under strenuous conditions. Although there is a block of classrooms constructed by SUBEB, the school still lack adequate furniture and some pupils have to stand or sit on bare floor during lesson periods. Even the available furniture was not supplied by the government; they were supplied by the Parents Teachers’ Association of the school.
The school was one of those starved of government attention for years until 2017, when the state government did some renovation and provided it with some furniture. But still, the intervention was too little to have positive impact on the condition of teaching and learning in the school.
In Kwangwara UBE Primary School, Primary One pupils sit in the sand inside the few classrooms available, as the floors are not cemented. The roofs of some of the classrooms had long been blown away by violent rainstorm. The school has only 405 pupils, but it has to practice shifting to ensure all pupils can be accommodated during lesson.
Standing inside the school compound is a SUBEB classroom project which has been left unfinished for some years, and is already showing signs of dilapidation.
The Head-teacher, Adamu Abubakar said complaints made to the Local Education Authority (LEA) have gone unanswered, adding that every year and every term, supervisors from SUBEB and the local government are sent to the school to ascertain what they needed but things remain the same.
A Primary One teacher, Owolabi Lola, who teaches in a class where the only sitting option for the pupils was the bare sandy floor, narrated her unpleasant teaching experience. “It is difficult to teach the children without desks and chairs; even with their writing materials, it is difficult for them to learn fast. In Primary one in Kwangwara UBE Primary school, we are facing a lot of difficulties; as you can see, there is no cemented floor, and the blackboard is nothing to write home about. Even the windows are not good anymore.”
At the UBE Primary Schools in Dankashimo, Baturewma and Ugulu in Kontagora LGA, this reporter came away with sordid images. They were all without any classroom building, and pupils hold classes under trees. However Nagwamatse Primary School is ‘lucky’; it has 21 classrooms built through the government intervention. But that’s where the good fortune ends. The classrooms are without furniture, not even for the teachers. As in several other schools visited, the pupils have to sit on the floor to receive lessons.
The Head teacher said: “The buildings were built without provision for furniture, which is the problem we are encountering now. Before, when they build or renovate a class, the furniture will follow; but this time, it is not like that. Even a new class will be built without furniture.”
The Education Secretary of Kontagora Local Education Authority, Bala Bello confirmed that there are actually some schools in the local government area without buildings and some without chairs and desks. He explained that the LEA has not received anything as far as school maintenance is concerned even as he lamented the state of decay in primary school infrastructures. “The decay in infrastructures is very bad. More than 30 of the schools need urgent attention and intervention in so many ways. Some need increase in structures; there are some schools with more than 250 pupils in a class, and it is unfortunate that you did not meet the children in class; you will weep for them.”
On SUBEB intervention, the Education Secretary confirmed that most of the new buildings being constructed were not given furniture. He however pointed out that the local education authority does not have any control over the contractors, stressing that this is what has resulted in execution of shoddy jobs.
The same situation obtains in Borgu Local Government Area. In one of the schools visited, Tamanai UBE Primary School, some blocks of classrooms without roofs and ceilings were noticeable. Many of the classes had no chairs, and where they had chairs, they were largely broken down.
Yangba Primary School is one of the 30 schools in the local government area where classes are held in the open due to lack of suitable classrooms. According to Suleiman Yabagi, a teacher in the school, pupils cannot sit in the classrooms because the roofs have been blown away and pupils have to sit under trees to take their lessons.
This reporter gathered that 600 pieces of furniture were distributed by the current administration in the state in December 2017 to address the infrastructure decay. But in a local government with about 130 public primary schools, the intervention was like a drop in the ocean.
No longer ‘Child-friendly school’
In Niger South, the situation is equally pathetic. A school once designated by UNICEF 14 years ago as Child Friendly School, Takawanga Primary School in Mokwa Local Government Area, is now a danger to school children. The school has a pupil population of 536 but only one block of three classrooms is in use.
According to the Headmistress, Hajiya Fatima Mohammed Safu, each of the three classrooms is divided into two so that all the pupils can be accommodated. “Please don’t ask me how they will learn in that situation because I too don’t know. If we don’t do it like that, our other option would be that they learn outside; and I am not ready to subject them to that.”
It was learnt that there has been no form of intervention in the school in a long time. Janaidu Mustapha, a Primary Six pupil confirmed that they are made to sit on the floor to learn, and that he, like many of his fellow pupils, has never sat on a chair and desk since he started school there. Hajiya Safu said all complaints to the appropriate bodies have yielded no response or result.
Although, the scope of this investigation was to visit only primary schools in the local government, however, curiosity due to comments from community leaders took the reporter to Government Secondary School, Bokani. GSS Bokani is a mixed school but only the girls stay in the hostels while the boys return to their homes daily. The hostel does not look like a normal boarding facility-no fence, poor sanitation and not conducive for human habitation.
The Labour Prefect of the school, Felicia Ezekiel took the reporter round the ‘hostel’ where there are about five dormitories with only double spring beds without mattresses. Felicia said mats are used in place of mattresses and no storage facility, electricity or fan. “We use torchlights to read if the need arises at night,” she said.
The bathrooms were infested with rodents making most of the students to bathe outside and when they want to defecate, they carry out the business in nylon and throw it outside the building. But anyone without nylon would have to visit the bush. As for security, there is no perimeter fencing, no gate and no security personnel to watch over the girls. Also there are no dining rooms, the girls are served their food in their food cookers in the cubicle called kitchen and they take it to their hostel to eat.
”We do not have water, no mattresses and our hostels are not conducive and liveable and we need more teachers in the school. We also do not have light, we use touch in the night and most times the battery died before we can finish reading for the night. Torchlights are our main source of light in this school,” one of the students narrated.”
One of the school officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said there has never been any government intervention in spite of series of complaint from the school authorities. The source added that officials from the Secondary School Board had visited the school several times to assess the situation but nothing was done.
In Bida Local Government, the situation seemed a bit better as renovation works were on-going when the reporter visited. Many of the primary schools in the town were under renovation while in some, new classroom buildings had been completed. Schools were on holidays and there was no way to find out whether furniture was also provided for the schools.
However, some schools in the town are also in need of urgent renovation and additional classroom buildings. One of them is the Bagudu Waziri Primary School which had classrooms with falling roofs and dilapidated structures. Most of the classes also had no furniture.
Another school worth mentioning is Bagudu Shettima Primary School where the renovation of a block of two classrooms is not adequate to address the decaying infrastructure in the school. Broken chairs are being used by the pupils.
Niger East – where urban schools are gives preference over rural schools
In Niger East, there seem to be partiality in addressing the decay in dilapidated structures of primary schools. This senatorial district boasts of two major cities in the state, Minna and Suleja. Most of the schools in the urban towns have been renovated and some turned to model schools. But the case is different in the rural areas, where pupils still sit on the floor in classrooms without furniture, and sometimes in the open air under trees.
In Chanchaga Local Government Area, which is where the state capital, Minna, is located, many of the primary schools show glaring evidence of dilapidation. The reporter visited Barkin Sale Primary School, where two classroom buildings were renovated in 2015. However, the classrooms, which were in use, had no chairs or desks for the pupils, as they sit on the floor while the other building was still under lock and keys.
The head teacher’s office was an eyesore, with a little chair and table. Efforts to get information and details about the school proved abortive. When the reporter got to the school, the head teacher expressed joy that someone had finally come to see first-hand, the disturbing state of the school. “It is people like you we need. Thank you for coming. Things are in very bad shape. You need to see it for yourself. ”
Limawa Primary School, which is also in Minna, was recently renovated by SUBEB to the standard of a model school. Although some of the children still sit on the floor, a teacher in the school said they recently received some classroom furniture, which would be used when the pupils resume for second term.
Nikangbe Primary School is one of the schools located on the outskirt of Minna. The school had no chairs in any of the classrooms despite having 14 classrooms. A peep into some of the classes revealed that the classes each contained no less than 60 pupils.
One of the teachers who called herself, Aunty Sofia said the issue of dilapidated structures and lack of classroom furniture is a general problem facing many of the schools, adding that the head teacher of the school had written to SUBEB and the Local Education Authority but nothing had been done. “We know supervisors are sent here regularly. Each time supervisors come here and ask us what we need, they come and assess what is needed but yet nothing is done,” she said.
Matha Shikeri, a Primary five pupil in the school said she had spent five years in the school but only sat on a chair when she was in primary 3. “I have been in this school for five years and I only sat on a chair when I was in primary 3. I have not seen government bringing chairs for us. I am in Primary 5 now,” she said in a tone full of lamentation.
New Tunga Primary School, Kwalkota Primary School, Chachanga Primary school are some of the schools that have renovated classrooms but few furniture.
In the rural areas of Paikoro, 80 schools are in need of major repairs while 143 are in need of classroom furniture. In about one hundred primary schools, pupils still take lessons in the open air due to lack of classrooms. This is one local government that have felt the least impact of government intervention in schools.
The schools in very bad shape are in the rural areas of Kafinkoro Central, Farin-Doki, Baida, Kwakuti amongst others. In the opinion of the Education Secretary, Musa Hamidu,” all the schools need overhauling and urgent attention.”
This was where this reporter learnt that not all new school buildings in the local government were built by SUBEB. Some were built through community effort, like in the case of U.K Bello Memorial Nursery and Primary school, which was started by the community and completed by a politician in the area. However, the classrooms had no furniture when the reporter visited.
The Head teacher, Adullahi Tanko confirmed that some of the buildings in the school were not done by the state government. He said it was the PTA of the school that started the project.
The dilapidated four blocks of classrooms in the school are so bad that carpenters were said to have rejected any offer of repairing the blown-off roofs.
In Zubairu Primary School, there were evidences of SUBEB intervention but the school lacked classroom furniture and pupils have to sit on bare floors.
The reporter learnt that parents in Paikoro had long decided to take the destinies of their children in their hands after prolonged government inaction in schools in the area. In other to ensure their wards learn under conducive conditions, the PTA in the schools taxed parents to contribute funds for renovation of classrooms and provision of furniture
To further confirm this development, when the reporter visited Tangopi Primary School, she met the PTA holding a meeting where they were discussing how to repair one of the classes which roof had been blown off. It was learnt that the PTA expended N500,000 on recent repairs in the school. The PTA Chairman, Ibrahim Audi, said they always meet to discuss on how to take care of the dilapidated structures. ‘We usually raise money and renovate anyone that needs urgent attention. The structures are in good shape now and we are happy with it.”
The Paikoro Education Secretary, Musa Hamidu disclosed that a list of schools that needed intervention had been compiled and sent to SUBEB, but the response has not been adequate. “Our powers are limited. We cannot do anything more than compiling and sending the lists. We don’t have the financial wherewithal to do anything even if we want to,” he said, bitterly.”
In Suleja, 22 out of the 83 primary schools in the local government area are in need of major repairs while 50 require classroom furniture. The environment in many of the schools is also unhygienic. For instance at the Suleiman Barau Primary School, an open drainage that had not been cleared for months runs in front of a classroom building oozing bad odour.
At Ibrahim Dodo primary school, a classroom was infested by bats, and one had to cover the nose before entering because of the smell. In another school, out of 32 classes, only 8 were functional with little or no chairs. Most of the doors of the building had been removed and the buildings were gradually collapsing.
This investigation is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the International Centre for Investigative Reporting.
