Face-to-face with pupils learning under tree in Adamawa

The tree branches over them luckily shield them from the sun and they are equally lucky the rains had fallen the previous night. What would have bothered them, made them ill, in a village where there isn’t even a dispensary, is the damp cold earth. But they are lucky they have stones that separate their […]

The tree branches over them luckily shield them from the sun and they are equally lucky the rains had fallen the previous night. What would have bothered them, made them ill, in a village where there isn’t even a dispensary, is the damp cold earth. But they are lucky they have stones that separate their bottoms from the earth.

Their ages range from four to 10 years and are primary one pupils in Grim Primary School, Jada Local Government Area of Adamawa State.

The teacher stands before the class with a whip as his only teaching aid. He has a mini- blackboard and therefore wouldn’t even dream of having chalk or duster. The pupils are taught to repeat English alphabets after the teacher.

With energy and eagerness to learn, they repeat the alphabets, as their parents, who out of sheer zeal to see their children get education, left them behind at school while they planted on their farms from the other side of the village.

The village school is little more than a few benches under a tree; the few textbooks available are used by their teacher Joseph   Wagumbi to prepare lessons.

From all indications, this village teacher has little formal training.

Sometimes he teaches three different classes at the same time, moving from one to another to check their progress.

A short drive from Mayo-Mbullo is Jada, the nearest city, where Wagumbi  goes to collect  his monthly dues as salaries.

“I’ve never got much training though I’m trying hard to enrol into NTI’s pivotal programme,” admits John, one of the more qualified teachers at one of the nearest junior secondary school, the only secondary school in the area.

For many years, religious groups, especially missionaries, in collaboration with community leaders, had been attempting to tackle education – a sector that literally needs to be built from scratch.

Villages like Gawi, Mayo-Mbullo and Bura-Tola all in southern parts of the state are seriously in dire need of school assistance. In Bura-Tola, it will be recalled that this community has placed education as its top priority evidenced by its ability to mobilise and organise itself towards improving the standard of education by constructing of two classrooms.

Challenges

In remote villages visited, most teachers are volunteers or receive small stipends from Non-Governmental Organisations or churches.

Three-quarters of adults in the area are illiterate while school-age children are enrolled – with about one percent of girls finishing primary school.

‘’While pupils and students are learning under sub-human conditions -without ventilated classrooms, sitting under trees, leaking roofs,  with no benches, tables, desks, no drinking water, lack of toilets,  and no meals, there is a need for the UBE huge funds to be properly used in raising the falling standard of education especially in the area of human development,’’ said Malam Inuwa Buba, a retired school principal in the state.