EDUCATION Kunbawada’s basic education in ruins
The Local Government Education Authority’s primary school in New Kunbawada, the headquarters of Kunbawada District of Muya Local Government Area of Niger State, sits strategically on a highland along Minna-Sarkin Pawa-Kaduna road.
It is the only governmentowned institution providing the compulsory basic education to the teeming children from the community and environs. However, our correspondent observed that the only classroom block which houses the pupils and teachers is in deplorable condition and is hardly habitable especially now that the raining season has set in.
Although the school has a population of over 200 pupils and runs classes one to six, it has just three classrooms. Classes one to three use one room with separate teachers, while classes four and five occupy the rest.
Our correspondent learnt that the school’s eight-man teaching staff, including the headmaster, compete for space within the three classrooms as there is no office accommodation for them. But even such situation is only possible during the dry season.
Our correspondent observed that part of the roof of the two classrooms has been blown off and there is no ceiling; the building becomes inhabitable when it is raining.
“Whenever we see rainstorm we dismiss the pupils and close the school,” Malam Ibrahim Sa’ad, Head, School Based Education Committee, said.
Most of the school’s furniture are also bad. The community said some of the pupils sit on the floor for their lessons.
Another facility which would complement the Universal Basic Education (UBE) structure has been abandoned at the roofing stage.
The abandoned structure, which was initiated by the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), consists of three classrooms and a headmaster’s office. The rafters have since collapsed, while parts of the wall have cracked.
Our correspondent noticed that the community was making effort to build an office for the headmaster using mud bricks. However, the effort is being frustrated by the constant heavy down pour.
The school’s toilet, a two rooms facility, was built and donated by UNICEF; so also the open well which serves its water needs. Aside the dilapidating facility, the school is open to encroachment as it has no fence around it.
Our correspondent reports that the state government’s “Whole-School-Approach” was intended to make school environment conducive for teaching and learning with about N2.1 billion earmarked for the initiative at the initial stage.
The state government said the construction work would be done to the standard of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). However the approach concentrates more on the facility upgrade of secondary schools, with two schools from each of the three senatorial districts.
Experts argue the initiative should factor in the deplorable state of primary schools which are the foundation of educational attainment.
Sarauniyar that Kunbawada, (district head), Hajiya Hadija Ahmed, said as headquarters of a district, the town required a primary school befitting its status.
“You have seen for yourself; we have been appealing for intervention but none has so far come our way. When the rain comes the school has to be shut down because the roof has been blown off. The classes are not enough for the pupils; the teachers have no offices; the pupils defecate in the open until the UNICEF graciously came and built its toilets.
“We are appealing to the state government to urgently intervene to save the situation by not only renovating existing facilities but also building new classroom blocks and offices for staff.
“I also want to use this medium to appeal to the state government to build more junior secondary schools because there is only one within the district. We also require at least two Senior Secondary Schools to enable students from the junior level transit to the senior cadre,” the district head said.