Children’s Day: NUT bemoans worsening state of public primary schools

Today, Nigerian children will join their counterparts across the world to celebrate this year’s Children’s Day. But while their mates in other climes are learning with ease with good facilities, public primary school pupils in the country are learning under very terrible condition in schools that are in state of disrepair.

Investigations carried out by The PUNCH revealed that many of these pupils are learning with difficulty in dilapidated structures and environments that are not suitable for learning.

The PUNCH correspondents who visited schools in states including Bauchi, Benue, Cross River, Gombe, Ekiti, Imo, Plateau, Enugu and Osun noticed that pupils in many of the institutions were sitting on bare floors using their laps as tables. Some extremely unlucky ones learn under the trees subjected to the vicissitudes of inclement weather.

Teachers, who spoke with The PUNCH on condition of anonymity for fear of persecution by intolerant government officials, said besides leaky roofs in the institutions, the schools lacked functional toilets, potable water, libraries and sick bays.

Except in a few public schools in rural areas, classrooms in most public primary schools in urban cities visited by our correspondents were overcrowded.

They blamed the state governments for the decrepit state of basic public education in the country.

The National Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Mr Emmanuel Hwande, who agreed with the findings of The PUNCH, blamed the state governments for the decay in public primary schools.

He said, “UBEC was created in 1994 to address the state of disrepair in public primary schools and payment of teachers among other things. State governments are supposed to provide the matching grant to access the UBEC fund. Unfortunately, they are not bringing their matching grant. If the state governments are not playing this crucial role, then the issue of decay as it affects public primary schools will never be addressed.

“Until state governments see the reason to put greater commitment to getting matching grant to get funds from UBEC and consider our demand that 27 per cent of the budget should be deployed into education, the issue of decay will continue.

“We have also been calling for teachers in public primary schools to get their salaries from the first line charge. Abia, Benue, among others owe our members many months of salary arrears. It goes further to show that the government’s commitment to the sector is not there. These are clear indices.”

Pupils learn under trees in Bauchi school

At the Gudum Hausawa Primary School in the Gudum Hausawa in Bauchi metropolis of Bauchi State, it was observed that pupils in Primary Two to Primary Five were receiving lessons under the four locust bean trees in the school.

The PUNCH correspondent, who visited the school on Thursday, noticed that Primary One and Primary Six pupils, who had classrooms, sat on bare floors.

A teacher, who spoke on condition of anonymity, lamented the lack of toilets in the school, adding that due to this, female teachers usually made use of toilets in houses near the school.

She said, “We have no toilets. Can you imagine what our pupils go through? We always feel very uncomfortable and embarrassed going to people’s houses to beg them to allow us use their toilets.”

Punchng