PUPILS of the Community Primary School II, Obinagu Uwani in Nkanu West Local Government Area of Enugu State now study under trees following lack of accommodation for classes.

The situation has forced the management of the school to teach primaries 1-3 together so as to accommodate them under the shelter provided by the trees.

The only building housing the pupils was blown off last year by wind forcing the authorities to relocate to a shed provided by a tree near the school.

But the State Universal Basic Education Board (ESUBEB) had in what looked like an intervention effort undertaken to renovate the building and in fact awarded the contract for the job to one Mr. Jude Igwesi.

However, since the contract was awarded last year, the job is yet to be completed forcing the teachers to send the children back home anytime it is raining or when there is severe cold weather.

The school’s head teacher, Mrs. Ngozi Nnaji, told The Guardian who visited the school yesterday, that the contractor stopped work on the building after the woodwork last year, stressing that the pupils had been studying under the tree since last year.
It was observed that pupils were lumped under a tree studying while the school building was yet to be roofed.

According to Mrs. Nnaji, the school which has seven teachers including the headmistress and her assistant also lack other amenities including desks, tables, blackboards and other amenities required for learning, stressing that parents are beginning to withdraw their children to private schools, as a result of the development.

“As a headmistress of this school, I don’t have an office. My office is under the tree likewise all the teachers we have here. We don’t have water, but we have a pit latrine. There are no facilities for the children to study with, the desks we have here are not enough to accommodate the pupils. My greatest worry is the accommodation, which is not in existence here. Let them come and roof the building so that the children can get into the classrooms. We have been managing the situation since last year and when it rains, we usually send the pupils home,” she said.

Mrs. Nnaji, who said she was posted to the school in January this year, added that the school had carried her case to the council chairman, Mr. Ekene Okenwa, who promised to assist, adding however that he was yet to make good his promise.
Contacted, the contractor, Igwesi said that funds had been responsible for the non-completion of the school building, explaining that the payments were made through banks.

He said so far, he had expended what was approved and paid to him and was waiting for release of more funds to enable him continue with the work.

Meanwhile efforts to reach the council chairman and authorities at ESUBEB to comment on the development yesterday proved abortive as none agreed to speak on the issue.

Why not learn under the same tree they swing on

^^^ Same person that has used the same phrase against Yoruba ppl? Son, go sit down jor or find a tree to swing on. mtcheww

Face-to-face with pupils learning under tree in Adamawa
Sunday, 27 September 2009 01:59 Ibrahim Muhammad, Yola
There are about 40 pupils in a class and instead of chairs, they have stones for seats. They have their laps as desks even if they cannot use them because they have no exercise books or pencils.

The tree branches over them luckily shield them from the sun and they are equally lucky the rains had fallen the previous night. What would have bothered them, made them ill, in a village where there isn’t even a dispensary, is the damp cold earth. But they are lucky they have stones that separate their bottoms from the earth.

Their ages range from four to 10 years and are primary one pupils in Grim Primary School, Jada Local Government Area of Adamawa State.

The teacher stands before the class with a whip as his only teaching aid. He has a mini- blackboard and therefore wouldn’t even dream of having chalk or duster. The pupils are taught to repeat English alphabets after the teacher.

With energy and eagerness to learn, they repeat the alphabets, as their parents, who out of sheer zeal to see their children get education, left them behind at school while they planted on their farms from the other side of the village.

The village school is little more than a few benches under a tree; the few textbooks available are used by their teacher Joseph Wagumbi to prepare lessons.

From all indications, this village teacher has little formal training.

Sometimes he teaches three different classes at the same time, moving from one to another to check their progress.

A short drive from Mayo-Mbullo is Jada, the nearest city, where Wagumbi goes to collect his monthly dues as salaries.

“I’ve never got much training though I’m trying hard to enrol into NTI’s pivotal programme,” admits John, one of the more qualified teachers at one of the nearest junior secondary school, the only secondary school in the area.

For many years, religious groups, especially missionaries, in collaboration with community leaders, had been attempting to tackle education - a sector that literally needs to be built from scratch.

Villages like Gawi, Mayo-Mbullo and Bura-Tola all in southern parts of the state are seriously in dire need of school assistance. In Bura-Tola, it will be recalled that this community has placed education as its top priority evidenced by its ability to mobilise and organise itself towards improving the standard of education by constructing of two classrooms.

Challenges

In remote villages visited, most teachers are volunteers or receive small stipends from Non-Governmental Organisations or churches.

Three-quarters of adults in the area are illiterate while school-age children are enrolled - with about one percent of girls finishing primary school.

‘’While pupils and students are learning under sub-human conditions -without ventilated classrooms, sitting under trees, leaking roofs, with no benches, tables, desks, no drinking water, lack of toilets, and no meals, there is a need for the UBE huge funds to be properly used in raising the falling standard of education especially in the area of human development,’’ said Malam Inuwa Buba, a retired school principal in the state.

http://www.sunday.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1364:face-to-face-with-pupils-learning-under-tree-in-adamawa&catid=36:sunday-trust-investigation&Itemid=30

Bauchi reduces number of pupils learning under trees by 40%

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-443723.0.html

Free Education With Tears In Osun State

•Teachers Are Poorly Remunerated •Pupils Are Extorted

Free education in Osun State appears to have somersaulted as torrent extortions of pupils and students of public schools in the state have exposed the failed implementation of the programme.

According to a public affairs analyst, no one could claim to have seen the education blue-print of Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola-led administration, other than the governor saying he has stamped his feet on the free education policy for elementary and post-elementary schools.

However, the mad rush into private schools in the state, has contradicted the governor’s arguement, as public schools’ teachers have elected to take their wards to the fee-paying schools not to show class, but because the teachers could mess up the future of their wards.

Investigations conducted by OSUN DEFENDER showed that some state commissioners, permanent secretaries and top government functionaries, who have children of school ages, are patronizing the neck-breaking fee-paying schools.

According to an educationist, Professor Omotoye Olorode, the gesture signals an indictment of the government.

Checks have shown that, education is not only monetized in the state, but has also become another drain-pipe for the poor parents that are buying into the free education mantra of the governor.

OSUN DEFENDER, which went round the state with the aim of getting an on-the-spot-assessment on the state of infrastructural facilities, observed that the number of classrooms available for the pupils are still grossly inadequate.

Though some new classrooms constructed by some politicians as constituency projects were seen, the dilapidated structures in the public schools clearly outnumbered the new structures, forcing the schools to abandon the deteriorated ones, a situation that has returned the system to the state of inadequacies.

While some political pundits might have bones to pick with the substandard materials that were used in building some classrooms, OSUN DEFENDER found out that some classrooms have no chairs, desks and office furniture for the teachers, a situation that has compelled the public schools’ managements to instruct their fresh intakes to come along with their chairs and desks.

The public schools in the state now seem to have become a dumping ground, as lack of instructional materials, functional laboratories and introductory technology workshops, has forced some teachers into an unsolicited sabbatical.

Further investigations conducted in some public primary schools across the state, showed that the free meal programme, which has gulped several millions of naira was a mere conduit pipe, as the food stuff given to each pupil of nursery, primaries one and two was far below the money appropriated for it.

Checks showed that N30 was booked per head in selected schools, but before the food gets to the pupil, the stuff worth of N10 would be given.

Information has it that some government agents in-charge of the free meal programme, have turned the programme to a conduit pipe, cheating the pupils in conjunction with some top school management staff.

In a related development, the teachers’ shoes are seriously pinching them, for some of them who are due for retraining courses have not been sent by the education ministry, apart from the remunerative package that could barely take them home.

Despite the fact that teachers went on national strike recently to press home their demands for better pay in form of ‘Teachers Salary Structure’ (TSS), Osun State Government appears to be very reluctant in negotiating the new development with them.

As a matter of fact, the teachers in the state were forced to take up the gauntlet with the State Commissioner for Education, Mr Jelili Adesiyan’s statement, which tended to put the teachers on the government pay-roll in a fix as touching the TSS.

It was reported that pupils in some secondary schools were made to pay for extra-mural classes popularly known as lessons, ranging from N1,500 to N2,000 per term, a situation that has become a subject of controversy in some quarters.

Meanwhile, students of the state institutions of higher learning are still angry with the hike in their school fees, a scenario that has mandated the students to stage a protest in the streets of Osogbo, Osun State capital.

Speaking to OSUN DEFENDER, a parent who gave his name as Samuel Adeoti said that the governor should stop his lip-service to free education, saying that parents are wiser now.

“Each time I see Mr. Governor saying that he has implemented free education in Osun State, I feel insulted. I think he should stop the free education mantra because it has become an old song,” said Adeoti.

However a Vice-Principal in one of the public secondary schools in Osogbo spoke to OSUN DEFENDER under a strict condition of anonymity, said that it was the free education of Oyinlola’s administration that has reduced the burden of the parents in terms of payment.

“I think, we should salute the courage of the governor for the free education programme, because parents are likely to pay more without it,” said the Vice-Principal.

1000 Kids Learn Under Trees In Ogoni Community
Wednesday, 14 January 2009, 11:23 am
Press Release: Akanimo Sampson

Akanimo Sampson

Bureau Chief, Port Harcourt

1000 Kids Learn Under Trees In Ogoni Community

OVER 1,000 primary school pupils at Kerebangha, an Ogoni community in Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State, are still learning under trees 21 months after the collapse of their school.

The Kerebangha Community Primary School collapsed on April 1, 2007 following a devastating wind storm that wrecked havoc in the largely farming community.

There are growing fears at the moment that the children might be forced to proceed on a long break when the rains set in if help fails to come from either official or public-spirited quarters. Already, Oyigbo Local Government Area, Ogoni neighbours, experienced the first rain of the year on Monday, January 12.
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However, efforts by the community people to rehabilitate the collapsed primary school are not yielding any good result due to the rampaging mass poverty in the area.

Community ruler, Chief Israel Pie-Uwe, told our correspondent yesterday in the area that they have also not been able to meet with the relevant authorities in Port Harcourt, the state capital, since June 25, 2008 on the state of the school.

Kerebangha is a remote Ogoni community without any basic necessity of life. It has no good source of drinking water, no health centre, no electricity, and no access roads. The only educational institution there is the community primary school.

The community is claiming that they have been appealing to the state government and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to assist them in constructing a three-kilometre road that will help to impact positively on the lives of their farmer.

''We are appealing to the Rivers State Government and the NDDC to help us construct the three kilometre Bionu-Kere-Lumene road to help our farmers evacuate their farm produce to the market'', Chief Pie-Uwe said.

The nearest health facility to the community, according to Pie-Uwe, who is also the community traditional ruler, is some 10 kilometres away. ''That is at Bori, the headquarters of our local government'', he said.

Their main source of drinking water is fromMa-Ayor Lake which usually dries up during the dry season. ''Once the lake dries up during the dry season, our people trek for more than four kilometres to fetch water from the Imo River'', the community chief said.

As a result, the community is frequently hit by cholera epidemic, leading to loss of lives In 2007, the community said it lost two lives on their way to hospital in Bori, for treatment.

The state Governor, Chibuike Amaechi, had earlier this month acknowledge publicly that the Ogoni people who were locked in conflict with the Anglo-Dutch oil major, Shell, that culminated in the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight of his kinsmen on November 10, 1995, have been victims of neglect.

“I agree that you have been cheated, I agree that both the state and Federal Governments must do something to better the live of our people” Governor Amaechi said while calling on the Ogoni people to allow oil explorations to begin in their area, after years of disagreement with oil prospectors, so that more funds would be available for the development of the state.

Amaechi who made the plea on Sunday, January 4, while speaking as Guest of Honour at the 2009 Ogoni Day celebrations at Birabi Memorial Grammar School Bori, which held with the theme “Ogoni After Shell, said the development challenges before the state were enormous, said government needs more funds to execute them.

He claimed that in the last few years the state government has been constrained to use funds from oil prospecting activities in other areas to develop Ogoniland, saying that except Ogonis agree that oil activities resume in the area, so that more funds are available for government, it would be difficult to meet the needs of the people.

The governor, who sympathized with Ogoni people for the years of neglect, said it was time to turn a new page in history, seek for new ways of development and support government so succeed in its efforts to develop the communities.

“If you want us to tell the Federal Government to look for another oil company to exploit oil in the area, we will do that, but you must agree with me that time has come for us to allow oil exploration activities in the area”, he said.

He disclosed that money from the oil in Ogoniland would be used in developing Bori into a modern city but urged youths of Ogoni to stop kidnapping to promote development in the area.

“Again, one thing I will do before the end of our administration is to dualise the road from Saakpenwa to Kono and name it after Ken Saro Wiwa again, because as you know the Stadium Road in Port Harcourt has already been named after him”, he said.

Governor Amaechi said the Ogonis, being part of Rivers state and the Nigeria society, should not do anything that would be seen to undermine respect for the Nigerian state assuring that the views of the people would be respected on issues affecting them,

According to him, “the interesting thing about the Ogoni people is that while they were making the states, countries and the world to know about their oppression, other ethnic groups in the state, who are equally oppressed, did not” and enjoined them to consider him a member of the struggle since he abhors oppression in whatever form.

Governor Amaechi, who announced that a lot was being done for the people in the area of road construction, said electricity would be provided for Ogoniland before June this year, saying that already efforts are being made to temporarily connect the area from Afam Power Station pending when work on the Eleme Gas turbine station would be completed.

He also disclosed that ten primary schools were being built in each of the four local government areas of Ogoni while four modern secondary schools and at least 21 health centres were been constructed in Ogoniland apart from the taking over of the payment of Primary School teachers.

The governor enjoined the chairmen of the four Ogoni speaking local government Councils to use the money saved from the payment of teachers salaries to execute projects that would be of interest to the people.

ENDS

Classes under trees in a Kumasi school, Ghana

http://mobile.ghanaweb.com/wap/comment.article.php?ID=126640

Pupils learned under tree in Lagos

http://pmnewsnigeria.com/2010/04/28/badagry-council-builds-14-classroom-blocks/

Big shame to Ileke Idi

Roofless classrooms dot nation where lawmaker earns N15m per month
By OLUGBILE SEGUN and OLUNIKE ASAOLU
Friday, 17 Dec 2010

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Roofless classrooms dot nation where lawmaker earns N15m per month

Pupils and stakeholders in the education sector in this report by OLUGBILE SEGUN and OLUNIKE ASAOLU flay the huge wage being enjoyed by members of the National Assembly and call on government to cut lawmakers’ salaries and deploy the excess to the funding of the education sector. If you are planning for tomorrow, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a life time, educate people, so goes a Chinese proverb. But this adage is meaningless to Nigerian leaders as most of their policies and actions are against education and by extension, the nation’s future. Rather than giving quality education to the masses, they award huge salaries and allowances to themselves. Consequently, education suffers while most public schools are in a shambles.

Due to inadequate funding, most public schools in the country have been reduced to mere antiquities. For instance, a first time visitor to African Church Primary Schools 1 and 2, Iju-Isaga, Lagos, will mistake the schools for a war -torn community. Three of the four blocks of classroom in the school are in a dysfunctional state. One is totally roofless. Another one is in a decrepit state, while the roof of the third one housing the office of the head teacher of School 2, is rusty and leaky. The only hut-like block with four classrooms considered functional is now being used by all the 725 pupils of the two schools.

When it rains, bowls are kept in different places in the class to prevent flooding. The pupils are huddled together not because of cold, but because of lack of space. A chair that is meant for two pupils now sits six. The school toilet is old and sinking. Consequently, the pupils defecate at any place they consider hidden enough. The teachers are forced to befriend people living around the school in order to use their toilets. The school has no library. It does not also have a science laboratory. Because of its closeness to Iju-Isaga garage, the pupils are exposed to hoodlums, who have converted the school premises to Indian-hemp smoking joint.

When our correspondent visited the school on Tuesday, the pupils lamented the danger they were being exposed to and they called on government to come to their aid. Some of the pupils who spoke with our correspondent including Joy Thomas, Kehinde Ganiyu, Emeka Moneke and Suleiman Suliat blamed government for the neglect of the school.

“When it rains, we put buckets in spots where the roof is leaking. We are many in our class and we sit tight together. Our teachers are good but the government is bad. They are not taking good care of us,” Suliat, whose mother sells things by the roadside said.

Experts claim it will take between N3m and N5m to roof a block of four classrooms depending on the type of roofing sheets used and the quality of other materials.

None of the teachers including the two head teachers was ready to talk to our correspondent for fear of persecution. One of them, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, explained that the school was not the only one in that condition in Lagos.

“My brother, I’ve been in this profession for over 13 years and this is not my first posting, most public schools in Lagos and in fact in Nigeria in general, are in bad shape. Our leaders are interested in playing politics with education while they send their own children to schools in foreign countries. They award huge salaries to themselves while we teachers that make them are being treated with disdain. Look at this school. Is this how a school is supposed to be? Our leaders are wicked or is it sensible for a lawmaker to be earning as much as N15m per month in a country where we have this type of a school that even as a teacher, I cannot enrol my child?” the teacher asked.

Also, a visit to Alimosho Senior Grammar School by our correspondents on Tuesday revealed that lip service is just being paid to funding of education in Nigeria.

At the school, inadequate classrooms and a failed classroom complex had forced the school management to relocate its SS2 pupils to State High School. Some of the teachers have also been forced to create a makeshift office under a tree in the school compound.

When our correspondents visited the school on Tuesday, some of the pupils were seeing writing their end of term test in a crowded room. The teachers refused to talk to our correspondents while the head teacher was said to be attending the inter-house sports of the junior arm of the school. The state of the school, with a population of about 1,800 students and 79 teachers, shows that there is urgent need to accelerate renovation process in order to make teaching and learning pleasant for both pupils and their teachers. A class that should conveniently accommodate between 25 and 30 pupils is where 90 to 120 pupils are struggling to have a place.

According to some pupils of the school that spoke with our correspondents, the school is lacking in basic facilities.

One SS2 pupil who pleaded anonymity said, “Obviously, one of the problems of the school is dilapidated buildings and inadequate classrooms. The two-storey building that was built some years ago has been a threat to us. The building is always vibrating and shaking and there are cracks on the walls. The last experience we had there before we were evacuated was like a bombshell.

“Later, the school authorities stopped pupils from receiving lectures there, we were all packed into a block of classrooms, which is the only functional block we have in the school, but when the classrooms were overcrowded and congested, the SSS 2 pupils were moved to the other school beside us,” the pupil said.

From findings, our correspondents learnt that the steps that were taken by the Parents’ Forum to renovate some classrooms in the school were thwarted.

“When we saw the situation in the school, we felt for both pupils and teachers. Although, we were informed that the state government would soon solve this problem, we felt we needed to do something. We then decided to contribute N1, 000 each for the renovation of some classrooms that were uncompleted.

“We had hardly contributed N25, 000 when a petition was sent to the state government and we were stopped and told that it was the responsibility of the state government to renovate its school. But up till now, government has not done anything about it,” a parent, Mr. Jide Ajijola, said.

But the issue of decay in school is not limited to Lagos State alone, as facilities in most schools across the country are inadequate, teaching aids are behind in time, lecture rooms are pitiable, staff rooms are inadequate, laboratories and libraries are non-existent.

From Lagos to Ibadan, Ilorin to Maiduguri, Katsina to Oron and Port Harcourt to Osogbo, conditions of public schools are almost the same.

A lecturer at the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State, Dr. Soji Aremu, said that if part of the huge salary being paid members of the National assembly had been devoted to education, most of the visible decay would have been eliminated.

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201012178223846

2011 and millions of dollars later!

More tales from Lagos

From: Punch Published on: Friday, February 04, 2011

By Olunike Asaolu


Pupils in the crowded classroom, with those in front sitting

Schools still lack common basic amenities like chairs and tables in the heart of Lagos, the State of Excellence. Olunike Asaolu reports the pathetic condition of pupils of Ilogbo Junior High School, who do not only sit on the floor, but lack access to potable water. Break time was over and it was time for another series of lessons to begin that Wednesday afternoon when our correspondent arrived at Ilogbo Junior High School in Ebute-Meta (West) District Four, Sabo Yaba, Lagos. Blessing ran frantically ahead of her mates to get a sitting position on bare floor in her classroom to continue the day’s school work. She does that everyday. Struggling for a sitting space in her class is a routine because her parents cannot afford the N3, 000 required to buy her a chair and desk. She is one of the 100 pupils in a classroom designed for 30 pupils. So everyday, she sits on the floor with her books on her laps.

The school does not have enough classrooms and there are no chairs for pupils to sit on. The few pupils that have chairs and tables brought them from home. Sometimes, they sit under the trees to learn but when they do, there are no boards to write on because the boards in the school are fixed to the walls of their classrooms.

To compound their problems, the few available classrooms vibrate constituting danger to the pupils. “The building is always vibrating and there are cracks on the walls. So there is no way we can receive lessons there. The only functional block with six classrooms is now being used by all the pupils,’’ one of the pupils told our correspondent.

During rainy season, the school is flooded, discouraging pupils from going to school. “When it rains, our school premises are always flooded. I want to appeal to government to come to the aid of the school. Government should also give us good water. The borehole we have here is bad, the water is brownish and salty,” another pupil, simply identified as Ahmed, said.

Right from the entrance of the school, it is obvious that the school is suffering from neglect. Established in 1981, the school is in a water-logged area and in an environment unsuitable for learning. It is very close to the Carter Bridge, which harbours tanker drivers, mechanics and other unfriendly elements. The school looks abandoned and neglected by government.

There are just three buildings in the school out of which a block of three classrooms has been abandoned, because the building which was inaugurated on May 17, 1999 has become a threat to the pupils. A class that should conveniently accommodate between 25 and 30 pupils is where 80 and more are struggling to have quality education.

The problems of the school include dilapidated buildings, uncompleted drainage by the local government, which causes flood, and insensitivity of the community. The status of the school, with a population of about 700 pupils, shows that there is urgent need to accelerate renovation process in order to make teaching and learning pleasant for both teachers and their pupils.

When our correspondent visited the school on Wednesday, the pupils lamented the danger they were being exposed to and they called on government to come to their aid. Pupils, who spoke with our correspondent, including Blessing, Ahmed, Josephine and Rasheed, blamed government for the neglect of their school.

Blessing said, “The school authorities evacuated all the pupils on the instructions of an engineer, who came from the State Universal Basic Education Board to inspect all the buildings in the school. With this situation, a class that should accommodate 30 pupils now has about 80 or more.

“For instance, JSS 1, which had four arms has been compressed to three arms, JSS 2 was supposed to be three arms, it has two arms, and the three arms of JSS3 are using part of the administrative building.”

Another pupil who pleaded anonymity said there was lack of basic facilities.

“Our major problem is lack of facilities. For instance, some of our classmates sit on bare floor because they don’t have furniture. In my class, we are 85, just 25 of us have tables and chairs, others sit on the floor,” he said.

When asked why he had furniture and his mates did not have, he said, “I have furniture because my father bought it for me. Pupils sit on the floor because their parents have not got tables and chairs for them. Though I pity their condition, there is nothing one can do except if government provides for them.”

A member of the school’s Parents’ Forum, Mr. Rasheed Akamo, who spoke with our correspondent, blamed the plight of the school on parents and government’s insensitivity.

He said, “It is a pity that children are learning under such condition. When we realised that we could not continue to wait for government, we called parents’ meeting but just a few of us responded. And the only project we could do was the renovation of some parts of the collapsed fence, which we did in December, 2010.

“We are now trying to help the school to hasten the local government to complete the drainage it abandoned years ago. This has done a lot of damage to the school, when it rains, the whole premises is flooded.

“The uncompleted drainage has also created an unhealthy situation for the pupils. It has really exposed them to a lot of diseases. The community is also not helping at all. It is as if the people there don’t know the value of education. They have turned the school to a refuse dumping ground. Most of the time, people have their bath there, defecate, and dump refuse everywhere, not minding the health of these children.

“The school still has enough land to accommodate more facilities. I am appealing to government to quickly come to the aid of the school, because the situation is above what the school can handle all alone.”

One of the people that work in front of the school gate, who simply identified himself as Felix, said the issue of security should be taken seriously. “Because parts of the school fence have collapsed, the children are not safe, even this environment is not safe for children. Security of the children should be what people should be concerned with.

“Then another thing I have noticed is that nobody is ready to assist. The kind of parents we have here are people who don’t care at all. I have a niece in the school and she told me that for the past three years, most of these pupils have been sitting on the floor to receive lessons and write exams, and their parents know about this but they don’t care.

“I think it is time parents were forced to be responsible. Any parent who is not ready to be actively involved in the education of their children should be punished, which means there should be a law to back this up.”

Neither the principal nor any of the teachers was ready to talk to our correspondent for fear of persecution.

But the Tutor-General, Education District Four, Sabo Yaba, Mr. Ayo Obajinmi, in a telephone interview with our correspondent, said government was already aware of the situation of the school, adding that plans were underway to get the school back on its feet.

“From the report we got from the school, we are already aware of the situation of the school, and we are working on it. Government has compiled list of schools that will get basic facilities. The school is one of the four schools we are giving priority. Before the end of this month (February), we will give them furniture. Then other facilities will be provided as well,” he said.

Then on the issue of insecurity in the school, Obajimi said, “Security is general in our schools, and we are doing all things possible to ensure that our pupils are safe.”

http://www.ekiti.com/ekitinews/default.php?news_Code=Odd

In Ekiti, pupils also learned under trees possibly until recently (who knows could still be going on there)


One of the greatest sins that man can commit against God is to give glory that belongs to Him to mortals. King Herod had made a speech to the men of Tyre and Sidon, concluding with an assurance that he would pass by their offence and receive them into his favour again. He had power to keep alive and put to death. The people that had a dependence upon him, and had benefit by his favour, applauded him. They gave a shout; saying; “It is the voice of a god, and not of a man.”

King Herod took these praises to himself, pleased himself with them, and prided himself in them; and this was his sin against God for which angel of the Lord smote him and he was eaten of worms above ground, and gave up the ghost instantly!

Today, in Ekiti and indeed among some politicians in the Southwest of Nigeria, a replica of the story of King Herod is being witnessed.

Erected at Fajuyi area of Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State capital is a billboard that gives glory to one man for the emergence of Dr. Kayode Fayemi of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) as governor of the State. “Thank you Tinubu,” is the message displayed on the billboard. And who will blame a people for showing gratitude to one man, who is solely responsible for the judicial victory that brought Fayemi to power? After all, those who got the Ilorin victory are not oblivious of where the victory came from and cannot possibly be thanking God, whom they knew had no hands in it.

Apparently because the victory did not come from God too, its beneficiaries appear to be confused as to what to do with it. First it was the announcement of free education in Ekiti, a state where government had made public schools not only free but even more attractive than private schools. This was immediately followed by the reversal of appointments of Permanent Secretaries and removal of portrait of former governor, Engr Segun Oni from the Governor’s Office.

To put the records straight, as at Friday, October 15, 2010 that Engr. Segun Oni’s government was terminated via that men-induced judicial victory, only students of boarding schools in Ekiti State were paying N10.500 for feeding (per term) while no fee was paid in other schools (both primary and secondary). Apart from non-payment of tuition fees, free textbooks were provided while WAEC and NECO fees were paid by the government. Free VSAT connected laptops were distributed to students of boarding schools while pupils of primary schools in Ekiti State have been enjoying free egg and cocoa drink twice in a week, under the School Feeding Programme.

Furthermore, Ekiti State had been taken away from the comity of States where students of public schools receive lectures under the tree, inside dilapidated classrooms or carry chairs and desks to the school. This problem was solved with the construction of thousands of classrooms, including storey buildings in the schools and provision of school furniture adjudged as the best in Nigeria.

As at the time Fayemi was assuming office, education was not only free in Ekiti State but functional as parents were already withdrawing their wards from private schools and bringing them to public schools. It thus amounts to playing to the gallery for the people to be promised free education that they already have.

Removal of Engr. Oni’s portrait and Fayemi’s statement that he (Oni) was never governor is another issue that has taken center-stage in the last few days. In the opinion of Fayemi, who is apparently still basking in the euphoria of the Tinubu-induced judicial-electoral victory, Ekiti State had no governor for the three and half years Engr. Oni spent in office.

Whether giving order that all the portraits of Engr. Oni be removed should be the first assignment on the priority list of Fayemi’s government is not an issue I want to belabour myself with. Rather, I am amused with the glee with which common sense is being allowed to be eroded by the liquid of vendetta.

As posited by one Oluwagbenga Ogunbe, a USA based Oye-Ekiti indigene, who posted his comment on Isokan Ekiti, a Yahoo Group; the portrait of Engr. Oni may have been removed, but what about the bigger pictures? What about the many bills that were signed into law in which such laws have started to take effect? What about appropriation spending and supplementary budgets that was approved by the House of Assembly? What about the over 3,000 students who benefitted from scholarship schemes? Will these students be asked for a refund or will those who have already been pencilled down for awards have these awards forfeited?

Appointments and promotion of civil servants, including Permanent secretaries were approved by Engr. Oni, are these to be reversed? Are the 4,000 civil servants recruited by the Oni-led government to be asked to return to the labour market? Should those prisoners that Engr. Oni granted amnesty be asked to return to prison?

Most importantly, it was Engr. Oni that inaugurated the State House of Assembly and if Fayemi is saying that there was no governor in Ekiti between May 29, 2007 and October 15, 2010, it then goes to say that there was no House of Assembly in Ekiti State as at today. It will then be necessary that Fayemi should inaugurate the House of Assembly with the implication that tenure of the members would begin from the date of inauguration.

Again, the Head Of Service (HOS), Mr. Femi Adewunmi who announced the appointments so far made by Fayemi was appointed by Engr. Oni, meaning that those appointments and subsequent ones to be made by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) cannot be anything but a nullity if the person, who appointed the HOS was never governor.

Honestly, I think Fayemi ought to have gone beyond removal of Engr. Oni’s portrait. He should have taken a step further by returning all the over 500 kilometres of roads constructed by the Oni’s government to the state that they were before 2007.

Furthermore, all the Obas that were enthroned by the Oni’s government can also be dethroned so that he can embark on fresh selection process.

May be too, all the over 3,000 blocks of classrooms, Government House Guest Chalets, Secretariat buildings and other buildings built by the Engr. Oni’s government should be demolished. The over N1.5 billion equipment being installed at the State owned radio and television stations can also be removed so that the broadcast station can return to the state that it was in 2007.

In just one week that the judgment of men was foisted on Ekiti, policy summersault, removal of portraits and illegal freezing of local governments accounts, attack on innocent Ekiti indigenes perceived as members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), invasion of Ekiti by Lagosians have been the lot of the State.

In Ekiti, the reality is that men have passed their own judgment, which implies that all that is needed to win an election through the judiciary is for a loser to destroy electoral materials by whatever means, including setting INEC office ablaze. The beneficiaries of the judgment have not stopped giving glory to the man, who made it possible. But there is yet one other judgment that will come soon, which is that of God. When it does, no one, except Himself will take the glory.

Olayinka, a journalist writes from Ado-Ekiti.

http://thewillnigeria.com/opinion/6390-EKITI-BETWEEN-MEN-AND-GOD.html

The only exception is Rivers State.Thanks to Amaechi's Government

Abagworo:

The only exception is Rivers State.Thanks to Amaechi's Government

Are you blind? Did you not read this in one of my posts below?

1000 Kids Learn Under Trees In Ogoni Community
Wednesday, 14 January 2009, 11:23 am
Press Release: Akanimo Sampson

Ramon2:

Are you blind? Did you not read this in one of my posts below?

If I'm not mistaken the date reads January 2009.Go back and check now and you will believe in miracles.Thank you.

Ibos have always lack good leadership.

@Ramon2
Good job.

Before your comparative posts, I was going to say that I did enjoy studing under the tree in Enugu state:
The fresh air. Oh, the cool breeze while others sophocated inside classrooms.
Unlike studying inside with assigned seats, we simply chose the nearest pieces of stone at random when outside.
And they were surprisingly comfortable.
Day dreaming?
It was more fun outside, you could just lock onto a flying bird and follow it all over the horizon for the next 2hours until the bell wakes you up.
The best part of studing under the tree was that the boys segregated on one side from the girls.
A boy would throw pebbles at other boys as an indication that he was about to do it!
He was about to phat.
Then everybody would listen and took note how loud, then the next boy would try to out perform that particular dBA sound level.
The louder, the smarter everybody thought you were, and the merrier.
Forget about the odour, because unlike inside classrooms, there's ample supply of fresh air outside to dilute even the most pungent smell in a second.
Rain?
Thank God.
It usually comes when you're tired, confused, or hungry and ready to go home.

Funny people

^^^
You think its funny, try studing under a tree sometime. You might become the next Issac Newton