Bare floors, bats tell stories of Kano’s suffering schools
2,344 DAYS since Chibok schoolgirls were abducted
For communities in Ajingi Local Government Area of Kano State, the rot in the educational infrastructure in the area is greatly affecting teaching, and learning. Most of the schools in the ten wards of the council are now shadows of their former selves.
The schools are rotting away fast, as structures have dilapidated, with doors and windows all broken, and some even not there. Students’ tables and chairs are luxuries, with majority of the classes having none. Most of the classes have been taken over by bats, rodents, and reptiles. The school premises, with overgrown grass, are now grazing areas for wandering cattle.
A visit to Government Secondary School in Ajingi showed that the school, which was once a pride of the town, is in ruins, with most of the classrooms having been taken over by bats. Daily Trust Saturday also observed that there are virtually no toilets, as both students and teachers use neighbouring bushes to ease themselves. Despite being a school that hosts both day and boarding students, it lacks walls or any other sort of fencing, even as it is surrounded by farms, especially with the rainy season cultivation in full swing.
It is the same shocking story at Government Science Secondary School, in Gurduba Ward of the LGA, which is more of an empty warehouse than a school devoted to the sciences. The laboratory, for one, can only be identified by its stools, not by actual lab apparatus which are non-existent. Serving as a ‘science school’ in the morning, it moonlights as an Islamiyya for the community in the evenings. Both sessions of education see students sitting on bare, dusty floors.
Daily Trust Saturday spoke to some stakeholders in the town, and they said the absence of proper educational facilities in the area is a source of concern. “We’re all deeply troubled by the situation,” said Isa Abubakar, President of the Student Union in Ajingi, even as he added that efforts continue being made to reach concerned authorities to come to their aid.
Abubakar also revealed problems he described as “serious”, which plague their major schools, including Government Secondary School Ajingi, and those at Gurdaba, Balare, and others.
For over 10 years, the schools have been in dire conditions, Abubakar says. “We tried to meet with elders, and some well-to-do individuals from the town, but all that didn’t work out. We wanted to try and involve everyone, because the task is enormous. But so far,
The schools are rotting away fast, as structures have dilapidated, with doors and windows all broken, and some even not there. Students’ tables and chairs are luxuries, with majority of the classes having none.