Free meals: Schools grapple with overcrowding, teacher shortage

The National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSF) which enables millions of children to benefit from a balanced meal a day and improved school outcomes, is said to draw more children to schools which are however left grappling with staffing crisis, over-stretched as well as under-paid teachers. Several basic schools in Jos, Plateau State, have […]

The National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSF) which enables millions of children to benefit from a balanced meal a day and improved school outcomes, is said to draw more children to schools which are however left grappling with staffing crisis, over-stretched as well as under-paid teachers.

Several basic schools in Jos, Plateau State, have to contend with sudden increase in students’ enrolment and the devastating effects of classroom overcrowding.

At the LEA Primary School Tudun Wada, the head teacher, Akutse Lekyes Kwarkas, said since the introduction of the programme more students, especially from less privileged homes have transferred to the school.

She said, “Before the programme, we had about 60 to 70 students in a class but now we have almost a hundred because there are students that have transferred especially those whose parents cannot afford to give them breakfast.”

Kwarkas said, “In primary one, we have up to seven classes, the teachers are over-stretched; we have always had staffing challenges though now we have teachers from the N-power scheme assisting.”

A teacher at Rem Primary school, Abattoir, said: “In one of our classes we now have about 66 students but before the school feeding programme we had between 50 and 55 students and the main teachers are being assisted by the N-Power teachers to reduce stress.  

Our correspondent could not reach the state commissioner of education but a staff of the ministry said government had recently employed additional teachers to meet the needs of its schools in addition to the temporary N-Power teachers.

The most overcrowded primary school in Kaduna State is LEA Primary School on Lokoja Road, Rigasa with a population of over 21,000 pupils.

There was a huge challenge of shortage of teachers in the school following the programme but with the recruitment and deployment of over 10,000 new teachers to schools by the state, the situation is said have improved.

One of the teachers spoken to said he handled about 400 pupils in a class, adding that there were seven streams of primary one, from A to G with each having about 400 pupils. Primary two classes extend from A to K and primary three classes from A to J.

Also, primary six classes are from A to E with about 250 pupils per class. About 120 new teachers have been posted to the school to join the 18 old ones, which made it possible for every class to have four teachers.

Another teacher said before the introduction of the free education and free meal, the population in each class was less than 150. However to address the problem of high population, a new building has been erected with 30 classrooms.  

Similarly at LEA Primary School, Nasarawa II, our reporter gathered that there are about 1,500 pupils with 38 teachers. It was gathered that 33 new teachers were posted to the school to join the only five that passed the recent competency test. While the number of pupils in primary 1-3 is increasing, those of primary 4-6 have reduced since the suspension of free meals by the state government.

 In addition to the existing 12 classrooms, a block of four classrooms with furniture and white boards has just been jointly built by UBEC and SUBEB.

The commissioner for Education, Jafaru Sani, said 11,395 teachers were employed in the first phase of the recruitment exercise to replace the over 21,000 teachers that were sacked last year for their inability to pass a competency test, noting that the second phase of the exercise, with over 19,000 candidates, has begun while infrastructural development would follow suit.

In Kano, Commissioner One with the State Universal Basic Education Board, Alhaji Yusuf Musa Fagge, said with regard to provision of enough teachers for basic schools in the state, government had gone far.

He said, “Just last month, the state government recruited 1,200 female teachers that will be posted to various schools across the state.

 “This is an addition to the 135,000 teachers trained by the Federal Government who will also be sent to various schools to teach,” he said.

Records at the Bauchi State Social Investment Programme Office (BSSIPO) indicate that as at May 2018, the programme is feeding 651,110 pupils in the over 2,000 schools across the state. 

Findings by our reporter in Bauchi metropolis and beyond showed that most schools are battling to balance the teacher-pupil ratio which in some instances is 1:80 and above.

 Most of the ‎classes are overcrowded in Kobi Primary School, Fadaman Mada as well as in Warji, headquarters of Warji Local Government Area.

Even in a more organised school like Sa’adu Zungur Model School, the classes are filled beyond their capacities. The school is said to have witnessed influx of pupils mostly transferred from private schools.

A teacher in Warji said enrolment and attendance have increased in schools because of the feeding programme. 

On his part, the Public Relations Officer of Bauchi State Universal Basic Education (BASUBEB), Muhammad Abdullahi, said the programme has raised the demand for teachers in many schools‎ especially in the rural areas.

Classrooms and furniture as well as other facilities, he also said, are becoming increasingly inadequate.

He said monies have been earmarked for the construction and renovation of classrooms and provision of classroom furniture and other facilities.

On teacher inadequacy, he said many teachers have been redeployed to the rural areas from urban areas where many teachers are staying idle.

“So, all the idle teachers have been redeployed to schools in the rural areas where we found out that a school that needs about 10 teachers hardly has two; such school is as at great disadvantage leading to decrease in attendance or even enrolment in the past,” he said.