Making sense out of primary education in Rivers state
The mention of a public primary school in Nigeria usually conjures up images of dilapidated classroom blocks, shabby environment with pupils dressed in tattered uniforms and squatting on the bare, dusty floor. But primary schools in Rivers state paint a different picture. They are modern with facilities that even public secondary schools, and most private […]
The mention of a public primary school in Nigeria usually conjures up images of dilapidated classroom blocks, shabby environment with pupils dressed in tattered uniforms and squatting on the bare, dusty floor. But primary schools in Rivers state paint a different picture. They are modern with facilities that even public secondary schools, and most private schools do not have. For instance, when this reporter visited the newly constructed Model Primary School Elekahia, Port Harcourt, he saw a fenced school with a standard football pitch, looking verdant and well mowed. A basketball court was by the side and a playground with all the gadgets found in a playground in other private schools. The school also boasted of an auditorium, with rows of blue, soft fabric chairs; an equipped library, a computer laboratory with magnetic screen computers, a demonstration farm, administrative office dinning hall, a sick bay with a resident nurse, staff quarters and a dormitory.
The Commissioner for Education in the state, Dame Alice Lawrence Nemi, told Sunday Trust in Port Harcourt that the new transformation of the public primary school system was borne out of the desire to restore standards in the education sector in the state. According to her, massive reforms were needed in both the primary and secondary schools and the state decided to declare a state of emergency in the sector by first organising an education summit in January 2008.
“In order to arrest the preponderance of infrastructural and facilities decay in the various primary schools in the state, the government through this ministry is building 250 model primary schools across the state,” she said.
She explained that at the end of the summit, a comprehensive report was submitted and an action plan drawn out. She said the building of 250 model primary schools of the same standard in terms of infrastructure across the state was just one aspect of the reforms, while teachers training and enumeration was another area in which intensive reforms were been carried out, stressing that a rounded approach will be taken in areas of funding and facilities in the schools, inspection, reward and evaluation of teachers.
Earlier, the Secretary to the State Government, Mr Magnus Abbe said that Rivers state was laying a solid foundation for education such that it would become something to be benchmarked by other states. He said by creating a conducive teaching and learning environment for teachers and pupils, high educational standards would be maintained, and that it would make education attractive which will go a long way in addressing militancy in the state.
Mr Abbe said in order to achieve that, the state was partnering with British Council for the training of teachers so that the schools will not only be beautiful in structures but beautiful in content too. “We think we have enough qualified teachers to meet up with the quality of infrastructure we have on ground. Those who left Ministry of Education with degrees in educational fields for other ministries are now coming back to teach in our schools because we pay the highest and the working environment is conducive just like any other office. Besides, we will convert one of the colleges of educations in the state into a university of education so that our public primary and secondary schools will not suffer dearth of qualified personnel, ” he said.
During the two years anniversary of the governor of the state in office, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, the King of Kalabari, Professor Theophilus T. Princewill said the standard set for primary education in the state was the best thing that had ever happened to primary education in Nigeria, stressing that primary education was the bedrock of national development. He said that in the years past, when public primary education had not deteriorated, sports talents, especially football talents were discovered right in primary schools and that explained why Nigeria did well in sporting tournaments then but is performing poorly these days.“With a primary school like this, with a standard, well kept football field, I am sure we are on the way to returning to the old, glorious days when primary education was taken seriously, and it was a medium for discovering and nurturing talents for national development in all spheres,” he said.
The traditional ruler however, said that he was concerned over maintenance of the schools and sustainability of the standard considering its capital intensiveness insisting that government is sometimes not consistent with policies and programmes. He also advised that the schools should be equitably distributed in all the communities in Rivers state.
But for Godwin U. Owoh, a policy consultant on infrastructure to the Nigeria Governors’ Forum secretariat, too much money had been spent on building a primary school. He emphasised that for primary school standard, the school was over equipped, making the point that maintenance of the state of the art facilities would pose an enormous challenge to the state government.
He said it was important to create a conducive environment for teaching and learning, but that an over investment in primary education would result to waste of resources and most other important sectors that need attention will be in due course neglected because of scarcity of resources. For him, N112, 100, 000.000 as the total cost of constructing and equipping a primary school was too expensive, and somewhat a waste of resources as other sectors like transport, environment, housing and others pose serious challenges to the overall development of the state.
He pointed out that maintenance was a big issue, especially when expensive projects are involved, lamenting that succeeding administrations most often allow such projects to waste away because of political differences.
But education consultant, Oluwafemi Ayewoh advised that the communities should be involved in the management and maintenance of the facilities in the schools so that vandals do not vandalize the equipment. He emphasised locals should be employed as securities in all the primary schools so that the expensive equipments and facilities can be safeguarded.
Even with the huge amounts expended on the building of the schools, the green, neat lawns across the length and breadth of new classroom blocks is a sight to behold. In the serene environment, it was possible to picture in one’s mind little and brittle children scampering in innocence around the school with smiles and shrills full of promises.