Agony of public primary school pupils – We pack faeces with our bare hands every morning before classes’
Besides the obvious discomfort of their classes, the pupils of this school go through the rigours of evacuating feaces from their classes and school surroundings on a daily basis before they commence classes. ‘Every morning before we start anything at all, we always have to clean up the entire area because, the whole floor would […]
Besides the obvious discomfort of their classes, the pupils of this school go through the rigours of evacuating feaces from their classes and school surroundings on a daily basis before they commence classes. ‘Every morning before we start anything at all, we always have to clean up the entire area because, the whole floor would have been littered with faeces of residents around the school premises and afterwards, we have to contend with the offensive odors emanating from the refuse dump oppose the school. It is a real trauma.” Lamented one of the teachers.
While their counterparts in private schools study under the cossy environment of air-conditioned classes equipped with computers and other modern teaching aids, pupils of this school in their quest to surmount ignorance and illiteracy not only brave the scorching heat of the sun but also have to grapple with non availability of teaching aids like chalk board, chairs and tables, textbooks amongst others.
When Sunday Trust visited the school last week, pupils were seen sweating profusely in their classrooms built with corrugated iron zincs which easily transmit heat. One of the pupils, Eucharia Ojukwu in primary 5 lamented that “every morning, we always clean the school compound and remove excreta before we can start work. It is very difficult because it stains my finger nails and can also give me infections.” Another pupil, Precious Chukwu, who wants to be a medical doctor appealed to the relevant authorities to come to their aid. According to the ten year old pupil, “I want the government to assist us by providing classrooms and textbooks for us.’ He said.
In a chat with Sunday Trust, Abdulahi Ahmed, who is also the chairman of the school’s Parents’ Teachers Association, PTA explained that “we hold regular meetings to organize and sensitize the residents of this area on the dangers of passing excreta in the school compound but we have achieved little so far. So as part of the efforts to ensure compliance, we have decided to employ a security guard who will watch the school premises but above all, we also want the government to come to our rescue by providing a perimeter fence for us which will ward off intruders. We also want the government to provide basic amenities such as classrooms, chalks and others.”
Akume Joshua whose four children attend the school explained to this medium that “four of my children attend this school and I am not happy with the way things are here. So we the parents have decided to levy ourselves four hundred naira monthly to assist in the provision of basic facilities.”
Another parent who identified himself as Tijani Ahmed told Sunday Trust that “we are all concerned about this predicament. Personally, I am not happy that my two children had to pack faeces every day before they start school so we have summoned the meeting of the parents to discuss this issue. We also appeal to the residents to desist from defecating in the school premises because this is place so learning and not anybody’s toilet and above all, the government should come to our aid. We want them to erect a perimeter fence around the school and provide classrooms for our children because, we don’t have enough money to send our children to private schools in the town.” He said.
Apparently to rescue the school from its woes, Global Privileged Foundation, a non government organization, NGO embarked on a campaign to provide textbooks, chalks and exercise books for the school. According to the coordinator, of the organization, Anosong Ndoma, “we have appealed to well meaning Nigerians and corporate bodies to assist the school. Already, we have contacted some construction companies but so far, we have not gotten any response. Recently, we got a response from the Japanese embassy to assist but the truth is that we want Nigerians who should be more concerned with their affairs to respond. As you can see, these children learn under deplorable conditions. We want concerned Nigerians to donate books, exercise books, pencils, and computers. It does not have to be brand new computers.”
Speaking further on the activities of the organization, Ndoma said that “we are a nonprofit organization that promotes development through capacity building initiative especially for schools in the northern part of Nigeria. We have volunteers who participate in our activities and we have been involved with this school for the past four months. We want to raise the awareness among our people that it is much more beneficial to invest in projects like this because doing so will be educating millions of young Nigerians who might turn out to be the country’s heroes tomorrow.”
Items donated to the school by the organization include, mathematical sets, exercise books and chalks.
Sunday Trust also learnt that Zain communications is considering the possibilities of adopting the school with the view of providing basic facilities like toilets, classrooms, portable water and other teaching aids for the school.
However, efforts to get comments of the education secretariat of the FCT met a brick wall as the secretary was said to be away.
Established in January, 2004, L.E.A. primary school Idu Koro ll is a government owned school through the initiative of Mallam Ishaq Ibrahim who is also the village district head. The school which is located at Idu Koro on the outskirts of Abuja has an annual enrollment of four hundred pupils.