By Tolulope Aina
Parents and teachers in Community Primary School Owode in Ijako-Ota in Ogun State have lamented about the poor condition of infrastructure in the school.
When PUNCH Metro visited the school on Thursday, it was observed that the facilities in the school had become an eyesore with damaged equipment and facilities.
Teachers and parents who spoke with our correspondent claimed that the academic development of the pupils ha been hampered due to a lack of proper and adequate learning facilities.
One of the teachers in the school, Pius, in an interview with our correspondent said, “Owode has over 42 Community Development Associations. As big as this place is, we have just two government schools and they are not properly equipped.
“The two supposedly government schools were built by the community itself. In 2014, the school building collapsed. In time past, the students had their classes on the field without a roof over their heads.
“A Non-Governmental Organisation came from abroad to build the school after the storm from scratch. The NGO found the community via a video on social media showing the disturbed state of the children.”
According to him, the government only built two classrooms for the students while most of the developments in the school were done by private individuals.
“The school has not experienced power supply for about two years. Students sit on abandoned stoves and broken chairs to learn,” he lamented.
Another teacher identified as Babatunde also lamented the state of infrastructure in the school, while seeking help from the government.
A parent identified as Eniselu said, “Security in the school is zero due to the lack of a fence. Thieves come to the school regularly to steal. We are at God’s mercy.”
When contacted, the state Commissioner for Education, Ayobami Arigbabu, said, “There are two interventions by the government in the school. The first intervention was in 2010/2011 while the second intervention was in 2012/2013.
“Ogun State has 1,657 primary schools. In 2013, the intervention reached over 2,000 schools. We have over 1,000 proposed projects that will commence this year. The schools that did not benefit from the previous projects will benefit from the current project.”
Arigbabu urged the school management to constantly inform the authority of any basic requirement in the school.
Source: The Punch
