By: Ngozi Anna Akunne

Many communities in the Ado-Odo Ota and Ifo local government areas of Ogun State are close to Lagos State. One of the constant complaints of residents of the areas is the failure of the state government to provide infrastructure, including roads. Schools in the areas are not spared from government neglect.

The Community High School, Oluke, Ijoko, Ogun State shows every sign of neglect.

The school can best be described as anything but a learning centre as, in all ramifications, it is not conducive to learning.

During a recent visit to the school, our correspondent saw pupils walking aimlessly around the fenceless and gateless compound of the school.

Similarly, passers-by, including street hawkers and residents, made use of the school’s compound as a passageway to their destinations.

Due to the lack of a perimeter fence and security guards, newsmen gathered that some parts of the school’s land had been encroached by members of the community.

To the right of the school’s large compound is the two-bedroom accommodation of the pioneer principal when it was established in 1978, but it has now been converted into the staff room but looks too dilapidated to stimulate any productive mental task.

The large expanse of land could only accommodate just about six dilapidated classrooms with no science laboratories.

Some northerners and homeless people reside in dilapidated classrooms.

They were praying and lying down on some of the rickety furniture in the classrooms, while some others used tattered wrappers as makeshift mattresses.

The sight of the Community High School, located in Ijoko, Oluke Town, depicted a school that had been neglected by the government and other stakeholders since it was built in the 70s.

It is the only school that provides public secondary school education to students from over 15 towns around Oluke town, including Oyero, Ijoko, Onipesi, Awela, Okugbolu, Onireke, Oluka, Seriki, Ifote, Sonde, Arugudu, Lisa, Alaagba, Ademokula, Alapandi, Olayemi.

The erosion-ravaged Oluke road was the route to the popular Lisa town, where the Bellview Airlines Flight 210 crashed on October 22, 2005, killing all 117 people on board.

A walk around the classrooms revealed the huge ruins on the cracked and open walls – scraping off bricks, an abode to visibly comfortable rodents and reptiles (lizards).

Recently, the wall of a block of three classrooms collapsed when students were not in school.

It was indeed a narrow escape for some students who would have sustained injuries or lost their lives.

All the classrooms have detached and worn-out roofing sheets; most of the roofing sheets have been blown away by the wind.

A peep into each classroom through the dilapidated windows revealed dirty potholes and broken furniture. The roofing sheets had multiple large holes and termite-infested wood. There is no ceiling in any classroom while some of the roofing sheets have pulled off, giving way to direct sunlight and rainfall into the classrooms.

When reporters asked one of the teachers how pupils passed the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) yearly without science laboratories.

The teacher, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “We always go to other schools to get the specimens and teach them.”

Looking weary too, Taiye, a Senior Secondary Two pupils, said she was always ashamed of the school, adding that most students brought sacks, clothes, and other materials to sit on the floor.

“When I was in junior secondary school, we always sat on the floor. The present JSS 1 still sits on the floor, some spread sacks on the floor. There are no windows in the classes. When we are on holiday, some northerners come to our school to take our chairs to cook. In the science department for my class, we are like 100; in the commercial class, 80; and in art, 90. The total is like 300, and we all use just one class. “When commercial or art students have class, we will leave and stay under the tree. The government should help us so our school will be befitting.”

Looking sad and regretful, a parent, Mr. Kapo, who has two children in the school, said, “I have three children who graduated here and this school has been like this for many years. They (government) should help us to renovate it. It is the worst local school I have ever seen. If you enter the classrooms, there are potholes everywhere. They have like 300 students in a class and they write on the field.”

Another passer-by within the school compound, Mrs Assoh, said the school was in great dereliction and over-congested.

“Sometimes when I pass, I see children writing on the floor. Pupils brought all the seats here. It is stressful for the students. The Ogun State Government should try to repair it. Is it possible for a teacher to follow up and mentor a class of 200 pupils appropriately?

“If parents complain, the overworked teachers will angrily tell you to take your children to another school. You will see children walking around up and down during school hours and you won’t even recognise them as there are too many.”

Taiye’s septuagenarian grandmother also said, “It was shut down during the military era but reopened again after many years. It is a community bypass, and people have encroached on the land. Some northerners live inside the classrooms; they are intruders.

“The school is old. Even as human beings, if we do not take care of ourselves, we get old. We are old people. The government should help our young children.”

School history

The Apena of Oluke land, Chief Nojeem Alabi, explained that the school had been in existence since the Olabisi Onabanjo administration (1979 to 1983) and was built and unveiled by the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, saying a legal practitioner and senator, Kunle Oyero, was the senator the year it was reopened.

He said, “The school is old; it has been there since the time of Olabisi Onabanjo. Awolowo unveiled the school. When it was closed, with the help of Senator Kunle Oyero, the community came together, and the 15 villages that make up Oluke town decided to re-open it. We went to the Ogun State secretariat at Oke Mosan, we wrote to them, and they gave us teachers. Our first principal after it was reopened was Adebiyi.”

The monarch appealed to the Ogun State Government to help the Oluke town refurbish the school and provide modern teaching and learning materials.

Wasiu Falana, an old pupil, said the school, which was established between 1978 and 1979, was closed down in 1986 due to low enrollment.

The Ogun State Commissioner for Education, Science, and Technology, Prof. Abayomi Arigbabu, in an interview with our correspondent, explained that the government would ensure the rehabilitation of the school soon.

“We have a systematic approach for education in Ogun State. We have automated infrastructure and data capture. As we are capturing, we are solving the problems. You cannot keep supplying tables and chairs without attacking the real issue. There are needs in the areas of infrastructure, manpower, security, playgrounds, and laboratories. So that when we know the situation and interventions are coming in, we won’t be doing equity but based on needs for the school you mentioned. I have dispatched officers to give me situational awareness in the school. We are likely able to give them furniture soon and put the school in the action plan.

“Anywhere children are, whether in a private school or a public school, we have the moral obligation to ensure they get the best possible education in a well-conducive environment. We will be pragmatic, and prudent to see what we can do to handle all this. Within three weeks, you will start seeing some efforts,” Arigbabu said.

Punchng.com