36-year-old Jama’are Secondary School in shambles

The 36-year-old school has eight classrooms, three workshops, one laboratory, and one examination hall. It also has four hostels, namely, Ahmed Wabi, Sambolai, Tafida and Wambai. The school has 16 staff residential quarters.The school was renamed Government Day Secondary School in 2001 during the administration of Governor Ahmed Adamu Mu’azu. However, apart from the change […]

The 36-year-old school has eight classrooms, three workshops, one laboratory, and one examination hall. It also has four hostels, namely, Ahmed Wabi, Sambolai, Tafida and Wambai. The school has 16 staff residential quarters.
The school was renamed Government Day Secondary School in 2001 during the administration of Governor Ahmed Adamu Mu’azu. However, apart from the change in its name, the school has never witnessed any renovation since its commissioning in 1981.
A teacher in the school, who craved for anonymity, said while conducting this reporter round the school that things are not working perfectly in the school. He said: “The entire ceilings of the classes are leaking. Whenever it rains, lessons have to be stopped as both teachers and students cannot continue with the lessons.”
Another teacher, who also pleaded for anonymity, said successive governments of Bauchi State have abandoned the school for many years.
He said: “Education is supposed to be the priority of any serious government but here in Bauchi it is not.  Education is not given the deserved attention. As you can see, this school has never seen any kind of renovation in its 36 years of creation. The only thing I know is that government has renamed it once.”
The teacher said the school is faced with serious shortages of tables and chairs. The situation has reached to a point that teachers are sharing chairs and tables, any teacher that comes first would be the one to get a sit.
Also lamenting the condition of the school, another anonymous teacher said there was a time when ceiling fell on his head and injured his shoulder while conducting lesson in one of the classes.
He said: “Since that day, I developed the habit of been cautious while teaching because if something happens to me, nobody will take care of me. Therefore, one has to be very careful and cautious about his life.”
Corroborating what the teachers said, Ahmed Ibrahim an SS 1 student of the school, told Daily Trust that the condition of the school is deteriorating on daily basis due to lack of attention from government.
He said: “Last year during the rainy season everywhere is leaking in the classes. And the roofing sheets of some classes were removed by windstorm and presently the occupants of the affected classes are taking their lessons under the scorching sun. Sometimes they take lessons under the trees in order to protect themselves from the sun.”
Hashim Isah of SS 2 told our reporter that “we the science students have never carried out a single experiment because of lack of facilities in our laboratories,” adding: “I wonder how we can pass our physics, chemistry and biology papers in our final examination.”
Khalid Idris, a final year student, recalled that two years ago when he was in SS 1, students were sitting on the floor. He said “we don’t have chairs in our class then and students had no choice than to sit on the floor and have their lessons.”
“It was a bitter experience but we cannot do anything to improve the situation. So, honestly, the school is in need of total overhauling and government should come to the rescue of this school before it is too late,” he said.
The Chairman, Parents Teachers Association of the school, Malam Isah Kabir, told Daily Trust that the association has wrote several letters of complaint to the state government through the ministry of education but nothing comes out from the government so far.
“We have complained about the state of the school time without numbers but government remains adamant, we have not seen any sign of rescue from the government’s angle. But we will not relent in our effort to see that the school gets renovated. Therefore, I am calling on the state government to come to the rescue of the school,” he said.
A former student of the school, Hassan Nakoki, has described the situation of the school as worrisome, stressing that the condition of the school is causing a serious setback to the host community.
He said: “I have started consulting my colleagues to see how we can rescue our former school by renovating some of the structures, if not the entire school. The school is our pride, hence, we will not fold our arms watch it rot.”  
Also, a former principal of the school, Alhaji Hussaini Manu, said he has tried his best to improve the standard of the school but he could not achieve that due to some circumstances beyond his control.