NIGER STATE
He must have acted on a tip-off- and he acted
swifty on the information provided. The information led to an
unscheduled visit of Niger state governor Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu to
some state owned primary Schools few months ago.
The story was
almost the same in most of the public schools he visited in Chanchaga
Local Government area which is within Minna, the state
capital-dilapidated nature of the building and with some pupils
receiving classes on bare floor.
As if he has not seen the worst,
the governor and his entourage comprising most of his cabinet members
were stunned at another public school in Minna the state capital where
the entire building was dilapidated which could easily be described as
an eye sore especially since it is within Minna, the state capital.
Governor
Aliyu could not hold his emotion as he shed tears over what he saw.
Part of the numerous questions he asked were as follows- where are the
funds allocated to these schools going to; what explanation could be
given for these rot; if these type of buildings are at my door step
(Minna), then what happens to schools in the rural areas? Something
must be done to arrest the situation, the governor remarked.
Few
days later, the governor inaugurated an independent committee to travel
to the three senatorial districts of the public schools in the state
and report back directly to him for immediate action.
Unfortunately,
the tour was truncated by “powers that be” for “lack of funds” to
complete the project knowing fully well the implication if completed.
All the same, a comprehensive report both in print, and video was passed
on to the chief servant but with the suspicion that the report was
blocked in transit since there was no response or comments made by the
principal on the “excellent work” carried out by the body.
Till
today, the story is almost the same in most of the public schools
especially in the rural areas with dilapidated buildings; with roofs,
almost falling down; with no windows, no fence to protect the buildings,
no water for the pupils within the school compound to drink thereby
exposing them to danger when crossing the busy roads in search of water
and worst is that most of the classrooms visited are without benches and
desks to sit and write on by the pupils.
Even within Minna the
state capital, the bare floor on which the pupils are receiving lessons
have already cracked and very dusty thereby forcing both the pupils and
their teachers to wet the floor before the commencement of classes and
at intervals daily to avoid dust during classes.
The lack of
fencing of the schools has led to some of the classroom turned into
public toilet by outsiders who capitalize on the porous nature of these
schools to defecate in the classes with pupils forced to clear the mess
every morning.
Most teachers are not even provided with the common chairs and tables for them to sit and write while classes go on.
Also
conspicuously unavailable are simply teaching aids for the pupils which
are lagging in most of the public schools thereby making it absolutely
difficult to impact the simple knowledge to the pupils.
Because of
lack of these basic infrastructure and teaching aids, most of these
public schools especially in the rural areas are virtually empty with
both the pupils and teachers always absent from school. What has
happened in Niger is exactly what is happening in many states across the
country where contracts worth billions of naira are awarded without
supervision by the appropriate authorities and only for the Chief
Executives to be deceived by their officers that ALL IS WELL.
With
the zeal and concern shown by the Chief Servant on what he saw in some
of these public schools in Minna the state capital some few months ago
which led to his shedding of tears, and with the official eport turned
in by the committee he inaugurated to embark on tour of other public
schools in the state, one would have expected a rapid and immediate
transformation of these schools for the reverse is the case.
However,
the state commissioner of Education, Alhaji Danladi Abdulhammed who
just took over the ministry admitted that there are dilapidated
classrooms all over the state but assured that the state government has
taken a bold step to reposition them.
“Definitely, we must tell
ourselves the truth. The issue of education as I use to say is that we
are in a period of reconstruction, realignment, rejuvenation and making
the sector born again because the sector has suffered neglect for too
long and we all believe that this is the basis of development and
therefore, we are busy building new classrooms in the rural areas and
highrise buildings in the urban centres,” Abdulhameed explained.
The
commissioner assured that government is also going to concentrate on
perimeter fencing for security purposes and to guide against the school
lands from being encroached upon.
According to him, “we know there
are challenges but they are summountable but all we need is the
co-operation of the general public, parents and the stake holders in the
sector.”
Alhaji Abdulhameed could not however state how much
would be needed to put these dilapidated buildings in order but said,
the affected schools have been captured in next year’s (2014) budget
saying,
“Education is one of the sectors that government is going
to pay attention on in 2014 budget. All the old buildings that are
collapsing have been captured in our budget and by next year, most of
these collapsing buildings will be seen erect and functioning,” the
commissioner assured.
Friday, December 27, 2013
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WHY WEEPING?Gov Aliyu weeps over dilapidated infrastructure in public schools in the state
WHY WEEPING?Gov Aliyu weeps over dilapidated infrastructure in public schools in the state
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