By Amina Usman
Residents of Galdimari community in Akko Local Government Area of Gombe state, have appealed to the state Governor, Inuwa Yahya, to provide the buildings and other necessary infrastructure in the community school to enable their children get access to quality education.
DAILY NIGERIAN gathered from residents that children used to trek for about two hours daily to access quality education from the neighboring community before government established Galdimari community school in the area seven years ago. In a bid to ameliorate the suffering of pupils attending the school, residents said they had to rent an uncompleted apartment because the state government didn’t make provision for a school building.
A resident of the community, Ibrahim Hassan, said that before the school was established his children use to walk to the neighboring community to access any form of formal education.
“Between Galdimari and the neighboring community where the school of my children was previously located there is a big gully that it is a risk to the children and even adults. I prevent my children from going to school whenever there it is rainy season and there is a risk of floodwaters causing havoc. A lady recently lost her life while trying to cross the gully as a result of heavy rainfall,” Mr Hassan said.
Rukayya Abubakar, a voluntary teacher at the school told DAILY NIGERIAN that the school had been using the uncompleted building for a very long time due to lack of infrastructure, adding that the school heavily relies on funds from the Parents Teachers Association, PTA, to maintain the facility, buy diaries, chalk, register books and also pay volunteer teachers.
According to her, voluntary teachers are more in number than the full-time teachers because most people dread working in the school.
“Whenever a teacher is posted to the school, on stepping their foot on the first day they find the school unconducive for them to stay, so they quickly seek transfer,” she said.
Another teacher in the school, Aishatu Babayo, told this newspaper that teachers and pupils in the school are faced with the adverse effect of weather during rainy and dry seasons because the building they use as their classrooms only has a roof without ceiling and other facilities that would make learning easy.
“Most times during rainy we don’t come to the school because the place is wet and muddy and fit for learning. There are no benches in the classes for the pupils, so they sit on the floor.”
Malama Jamila is the school headmistress of the school. She said she reported to the school since 2019 and has seen the population of the school rise to over 300 pupils.
She said: “Prior to now, we hold our classes under a tree in front of the Sarki’s house. We later complained to Sarki that we need to have a building to house the school. After a while, the community decided to rent an uncompleted building for use so that learning activities can be easy and that was how we started using the apartment for about two years.”
Pupils, parents lament poor facilities in the school
A cross-section of parents who spoke with DAILY NIGERIAN lamented the poor state of facilities in the school despite its establishment seven years ago. A parent, Sa’adatu Halilu said she prevents her children from going to school whenever it rains because of the leaky roof of the school building
Another parent, who simply identified himself as Malam Usman lamented that his pursuit of quality education for his children is suffering because of the lack of a functional building in the school to cater for their educational needs. He added that he often stops his children from going to school during harmattan season due to the harsh weather conditions they are exposed to.
Expert, SUBEB react
Reacting to the poor state of education in the state, an education expert from Gombe State University, Department of History, Anas Muhammad, said that there is a steady decline in quality education in Nigeria and Gombe state is not exempted.
He said the decline is more conspicuous in public primary schools in Gombe state.
“One of the reasons for the decline is the nonchalant attitude of the successive administration of the state towards improving the standard of education in the state. Some of the high ranking state government officials are the owners and proprietors of private schools in the state and are not willing to improve the standard of public schools in order to avoid competition.
“In spite of the acclaimed implementation of the minimum wage nationwide, it is yet to be implemented for primary school teachers in Gombe state and this has been affecting their productivity.
Speaking on the matter, an official of the State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, Tahir Adamu, said due process was followed in the establishment of the school adding that with the exception of renovation works, SUBEB does not provide land for any community to situate a school.
He narrated the processes involved in setting up a school by the board.
“What is normally done is that whenever a school is to be built, the Education Secretary will run the project through the Local Government Chairman of the location, before sending it to SUBEB and from there we assess the project and include it in the budget.
“Then the host community will be asked to provide a plot of land for the school building with a certificate of declaration of the land forwarded to SUBEB for survey by the statistics department. Thereafter, a report will be compiled with a budget made for the provision of one or two blocks of classrooms,” he said.
Meanwhile, community members appealed to the state Ministry of Education, and SUBEB to urgently intervene in the school and enable it function efficiently.
