Pupils learn on bare floor in FCT school

Parents of pupils at the Local Education Authority (LEA) Primary School in the Kwaita-Hausa community in Kwali Area Council of the FCT have expressed concern over the lack of desks and chairs for pupils in their classrooms. Some parents who spoke to Abuja Metro after a visit to the school on Thursday said the lack […]

Parents of pupils at the Local Education Authority (LEA) Primary School in the Kwaita-Hausa community in Kwali Area Council of the FCT have expressed concern over the lack of desks and chairs for pupils in their classrooms.

Some parents who spoke to Abuja Metro after a visit to the school on Thursday said the lack of furniture has forced pupils to sit on the bare floor inside the classrooms during lessons.

They said that pupils from primary one to six do not have enough desks and chairs, which they believe has made learning unconducive.

Malam Ibrahim Shuaibu, a parent, told our reporter that the lack of desks and chairs in all classes has subjected pupils to sitting on the bare floor to attend lessons.

• FUDMA matriculates 1,000 beneficiaries of Barau’s undergraduate scholarship
• N/Assembly postpones resumption by 2 weeks

He said pupils often return home with dirty uniforms at the end of the day because of the lack of desks and chairs.

“It is quite unfortunate to see how pupils, in an FCT school for that matter, have been sitting on the bare floor. And the worst thing, after they close from school, you will discover that their uniforms will be dirty,” he said.

A class teacher at the school, who identified himself as Solomon, said the lack of desks and chairs is a major challenge for both pupils and teachers.

He said that since the school resumed after the long strike, pupils and teachers have had no chairs or desks to sit on, as most of the furniture is broken.

He said the few desks and chairs available in the entire school cannot accommodate all the pupils and that several efforts have been made to get the Kwali Area Council authorities to intervene, but nothing has been done.

“In fact, even some of the class teachers mostly sit on the windows of their classrooms due to a lack of chairs to sit on. ‘’The council authorities have been called upon to intervene, but up until now, nothing has been done,” he said.

Also speaking to the reporter, the PTA chairman of the school, Malam Yakubu Adamu, said the lack of desks has made learning unconducive for both pupils and teachers in the community.

He said he has written to the LEA management in Kwali several times to intervene, but nothing has been done since the teachers returned to class after the recent long strike. “I personally wrote to the LEA management in Kwali even before the teachers went on strike. When the teachers resumed classes after they suspended the strike, I still wrote again requesting furniture, but up until now, nothing has been done, which is really affecting the pupils’ learning,” he said.

Our reporter, who toured the classes, observed that pupils from primary one to six were sitting on the bare floor, with only a few pupils sitting on the available desks.

It was also observed that the ceiling of some classroom blocks had caved in, while roofs were also blown off by a windstorm.

At the time of the visit, the head teacher of the school was said to be unavailable, and his assistant declined to comment.

Several calls and text messages sent to the Secretary of the Local Education Authority (LEA) in Kwali Area Council, Mr. Peter Leda, were not answered.

The council chairman, Danladi Chiya, could not also be reached on phone but an official of the council said most of the infrastructure decay in the LEA primary schools in the council will be captured in the next year’s budget.