PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ENUGU RURAL COMMUNITIES: THE CLAIMS AND THE REALITIES

Enugu state has one thousand, two hundred and twenty six public primary schools with three hundred secondary schools, most of which are located in the rural communities. The experiences across the schools visited are a combination of the good, the bad and the ugly. However, of grave concern to some education stakeholders is the state of infrastructure in most of the schools, especially in rural areas.

A Civil Society Activist and Founder, New Innovation in Development Education for a Healthy Living Society, Mr Sunny Nweke, attested to the fact that schools located within the urban centres often receive better attention from the government than those in the rural settlements of the state.

Mr Nweke puts in perspective:

“Those basic things that schools and education require in order to give quality, inclusive education are lacking in the rural communities, physical infrastructure, teaching and learning materials, quality and access. You can’t compare the condition of the rural areas to the urban. There is always room for improvement. The situation was worse even before Governor Sullivan Chime’s administration. Governor Ugwuanyi has also contributed to raising the standard especially in physical infrastructure”.

 Visit to Aninri, Awgwu, Ezeagu, Isi-Uzo, Oji river, Uzo-Uwani, Udi and Udenu, Local Government Areas lent credence to the concern, with a pathetic story of decay and dilapidation at the Community Secondary School, Awha-Ndiagu in Ezeagu Local Government Area, Community Secondary School, Neke, Isi-Uzo local government Area, and Community Secondary School, Isiama-Awlar in Oji River Local Government Area.

[Other schools with similar challenge include: Technical School, Akiyi Umulokpa, Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area, Community School, Azunkwo in Aninri Local Government Area and Community Secondary School, Amansi Odo, in Ezeagu Local Government Area.

  The Principal of Girls Secondary School, Mgbowo, Mrs. Theresa Ajibo, whose office had been blown off by rain storm as at the time of visit, expressed sadness over the situation of the school.

She lamented:

 “There’s no person that comes into this place that will not say, what kind of thing is this? In fact, so many people that have come and gone would always tell me- what are you doing here as a Principal? I told them – this is where Government work brought me and I’m here because God also approved that I should be here. I have tried the much I could as an individual, the principal of the school. But you know, the level of dilapidation is so much that there is nothing I can do to save the situation.

I had written to the Government. I have called the stakeholders and the Igwe. All of them are aware of the situation. And they promised me that they would do something about it. If you look over there, it is an individual that has volunteered to do the work they are doing there, because I made him know that. So, the information has gone round. We are waiting for people to come and help us. We shouldn’t leave it for government alone”.

The Head Girl of the School, Cynthia Obasi, lent her voice as she regretted acquiring education in a hostile learning environment.

She said: “If I have my way, I will not stay in this school. Some of our friends would have come here but for the sorry condition of the school. There’s no building for us to stay. No laboratory for the science students to do practical. We are not coping well. Everywhere is bushy and we are afraid of staying inside the class, for the fear that the house may fall on us”.

The Vice Principal, Community Secondary School, Isiama-Awlar, Mrs Felicia Onyeazo, also laid it bare about the infrastructural condition of the school.

“In terms of buildings, the ones we have are nothing to write home about. There’s no ceiling, the windows, the doors they are not there. And the termites are giving us trouble. If you go to our lab, because of this termite issue, you cannot keep anything wooden, even books. We don’t have where to pack things. Of all these structures, the only good one is this one that is being constructed by UBEC. We packed in there last term. If you go in, you will see our staff room. If you go to principal’s office, you cannot sit there”.

One of the students at Community Primary School, Nsude, Emma Ozugwu, was saddened by the state of infrastructure in their school.

 “I’m not impressed at all about the situation. We really need the government assistance in the reconstruction of the school because we don’t even have a place where we stay. If you should be here and it starts raining, all of us will pack into one side so that rain would not beat us due to leaking blown off roof and dilapidated ceiling. The rain does not allow us to study. As long as it starts raining, the whole classroom will be filled up with water. Sometimes, if we go home, coming back the next day, all the books are wet”.

The accommodation problem had compelled the management of some of the schools to merge classes as was witnessed at Community School Azunkwo, Amala Primary School, Ohom Orba, Ahani Primary School, Achi and Primary School, Nkwuni.

PRIMARY ONE TO SIX BEING MERGED IN A SINGLE CLASSROOM AT AHANI PRIMARY SCHOOL, ACHIA Community Leader at Awha Ndiagu, Mr Mr Joseph Ozoenekwuenchi, appealed to the government to come to the rescue of the children who are worst hit by the situation.

“It is very hard for the pupils to understand what is being taught. I really feel bad because pairing two classes in the same room, doesn’t go easy on the children to understand the teachings. I’m begging the government come to our assistance at least by ensuring that we have enough accommodation for the pupils. The Government had been trying its best in all sectors of the economy. But this is also very important. We beg that they come around to do this for us. Our performing Governor should please come and assist us here”.

The Head Teacher of Unity Primary School, Akiyi Umulokpa, Mrs Stella Ozioko, was also depressed with the situation and was full of complaint, as she conducted this reporter round the classes, all accommodated in one building.

 “Three classes are in this room now – the nursery section, primary one and primary two. This is another class for primary three and four while primary five and six are in the next class. It is terrible. The class is always noisy. I don’t know how to do all these things because if the other building is good, we will be using that one comfortably”.

Some of the schools have no toilet facilities, a situation which exposes the children and their teachers to the dangers associated with what is popularly called “the bush method”. Such was the case with Ahani Primary School, Achi in Oji River Local Government Area where the Assistant Headmistress, Mrs Esther Ilonwa, pleaded for urgent government intervention.

ABANDONED TOILET AT AHANI PRIMARY SCHOOL, ACHI

  … acute manpower shortage

Apart from infrastructure, the ratio of teachers to pupils or students is a reason for concern as academic activities in many of the schools visited are adversely affected. The situation is the same at Community Primary School, Aguobu Ikenge, Awha Ndiagu, Ahani Primary School, Achi, Central Primary School, Awlar as well as Primary School, Nkwuni, Boys Secondary School, Mgbowo.

The Principal, Technical School, Akiyi-Umulokpa, Mr. George Oruma, shared the experience in his school with this reporter.

“The manpower here is very low. We need more teachers. You can imagine a technical school like this, we have just nine teachers. Myself, the principal, is the tenth person. I don’t teach because of administrative engagements. But, now I intend to teach, because the department I want to run is my own department. And if there is no teacher there, I think I should turn myself into a teacher. There are some subjects we don’t have teachers for. I am surprised that even the N-power teachers posted to this school had absconded. Since I was posted to this place, I have only seen them once probably where they were informed that there was a change of leadership. They should make their supervision school based even their payment, so that anyone who is not hard-working won’t be paid”.

The Head Teacher of Primary School, Nkwuni-Awlar, Mrs Esther Ubah, said the population of pupils in the school had dropped drastically to thirty as a result of manpower challenge and lack of infrastructure.

“We only have Nursery one to three, Primary one and Primary two. We have no pupils in Primary Three at the moment because of lack of teacher. We have Primary Four and Primary Five. There is no primary six. We have only two teachers and the Headmistress; just three of us are here. We join classes, Primary Four and Five, one teacher handles them. We have Primary One, Primary Two, Nursery one to three, one teacher is handling all of them. We need government to help us. We are in need of teachers for the good of these children”.

CROSS-SECTION OF HEAD TEACHER, TEACHERS AND PUPILS AT PRIMARY SCHOOL, NKWUNI-AWLARThe situation is acute in some of the schools to the extent that arrangements have to be made to engage experts in those core subjects like Mathematics, English, Chemistry, Physics, Biology and others, either from within or outside the community. Such arrangements are not without personal cost to the students. However, the Parents through the School Based Management Committees across communities are taking up the challenge with the recruitment of some teachers to cater for the future of their children.

Radio Nigeria also observed that the situation is more compounded in some schools as they combine infrastructural and manpower challenges with erosion and herdsmen problem. A case in point is Community Secondary School Nsude, Udi Local Government Area, where there was a fresh attack on the school by herdsmen, where one of the cattle, which ravaged one of the demonstration farms, was caught and tied down by the time this reporter visited.

One of the teachers, Mr Polycarp Onyia, was disturbed with the erosion and herdsmen menace within the school premises.

“You can see the erosion menace, last week, a student fell here. We use bags to support ourselves to be able to get to the principal office, where I am now. This afternoon, the little farm we are demonstrating, Fulani herdsmen attacked. If you go there, you will see their cow, where we caught their cow and we are still on it now. So our expectation is that our good governor would answer. Will come and see things himself to help our children”.

 PIC. 6: ONE OF THE COWS THAT RECENTLY RAVAGED THE DEMONSTRATION FARM AT COM. SECONDARY SCHOOL, NSUDE

However, the present Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi-led administration was lauded for its efforts so far in turning the situation around, with massive renovation and construction of classroom blocks in most of the schools visited. It was gathered that the situation was even worse than this before the inception of the administration.

Many communities seemed to realize that government alone cannot solve all the problems confronting the school system, hence their resolve to help in any possible way. Many of them, had through their illustrious sons and daughters, opted to construct or rehabilitate classroom blocks to salvage the future of their communities.

Few of the schools visited and several others located particularly in urban areas are in good infrastructural condition. One of them is the Boys Secondary School, Mgbowo, in Awgwu Local Government Area, where the dividends of synergy between the government and the community are manifest.

The Principal of the school, Mr Joseph Akpa explained how this came about.

“When I assumed office, the level of dilapidation here was unprecedented. So, I have to write to the PPSMB Chairman, Barrister Nestor Ezeme. Being a man of action, less than four weeks of writing the letter, he visited this place. He saw things for himself and then promised that something would happen here. And this is why ENSUBEB is here now reconstructing this junior block. This block was seriously dilapidated, but now you can see it, it is now wearing a new look.

As this one is going on, an old boy of the school who is from this community, came down and saw how bad this main school building was – the roof was about to cave in. So, he undertook to reconstruct it completely. This is what you are seeing now. Before then, there were no shutters, no windows. So after re-roofing the structure, he also went into replacing the doors and windows. You can see that all of them are brand new. That time, my office used to be like a shrine. It was constructed with woods, dead woods. He removed everything and used Alumaco to reconstruct it and even the general staff room. So, we thank God for our Governor and our people”.

… flashes of Corruption

 Some of the respondents argued that the present infrastructural and manpower condition of some of the schools in the state is a clarion call on the government to increase the budgetary allocation to the education sector.

Besides, truancy and rejection of postings to rural communities are other problems, which they noted, must also be taken care of.

The Archdeacon, Umulokpa Archdeaconry, Nsukka Diocese, Anglican Communion, Venerable Theophilus Ugwuishiwu, alleged truancy among teachers, some of who come all the way from Enugu or Nsukka to work at Technical School Akiyi-Umulokpa.

“I have stayed here since 2016 and I’m aware that some teachers being posted to this school, very many of them, they are not faithful as par attendance. Some of them made clandestine arrangements, though it will be fair calling names now, whereby some of the tutors cover themselves. You cover me this week, next week, I will cover you. It should not be so, because at the end of the day, it is the destiny of these children that will be affected. Well, their claim is that Umulokpa is far. But they were posted here to teach. I think if the government draws out incentive package for those that are posted to rural areas, these things will be taken care of”.

In a swift reaction, the Principal of the school, Mr George Oruma, said the management does not condone truancy, while anyone caught is sanctioned accordingly.

 “Well, I am not sure of such development. However, I can tell you that we don’t indulge truancy or any form of arrangement that can undermine the interest of the students. I am aware that one teacher, who was found wanting on the job sometime ago, had the salary seized”.

The Archdeacon of Umulokpa Archdeaconry, Diocese of Nsukka Anglican Communion, Venerable Ugwuishiwu, was also bitter that the Unity Primary School in the area, now battles with sharp decline in the  population of pupils, due to the failure of those managing the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme, to financially empower the two venders engaged and documented to cook for the school.

The Archdeacon lamented:

“From inception, Unity Primary School was captured. People applied and they were able to pick only two. Gave them orientation and then posted them. Two had been posted to this place. But since posting, none of them had been empowered financially. So from inception, Unity Primary School had been marginalized. It was  only two weeks ago that the Education Secretary for the local government made a kind of local arrangement by separating the two vendors, who cook  at Central School and then posted one here. But, according to him, that is just a palliative measure until those in charge of the programme empower the two vendors meant to cook for Unity Primary School.

The impact is that, the population of this school had been going down because as you will expect in a rural community like this, pupils will always go to where they are fed. The aim of the programme is also to increase school enrolment, but because the pupils of Unity School have not been eating for almost four years, the tendency is to move and they have to move and the school population depreciated between fifty to sixty percent.

The Programme Manager, National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme in Enugu State, Mr Ifeanyi Onah, said the state government was particularly committed to ensuring that all the primary schools in the state are captured in the programme.

Mr Onah explained that many issues can lead to the failure to empower documented vendors such as BVN problem, irregular account details as well as supply of information belonging to relations who are not involved in the programme.

He regretted that such still resulted after all entreaties to the people concerned to do the right thing and be meticulous about it.

“We warned them to give us verifiable information about them. Some of them gave us details of their relations including husbands, brothers, sisters, children and others. Once the National office noticed discrepancies in their information provided, it becomes suspicious and that is why some were dropped after being documented and trained. We need to wait for another approval from the Federal government either to take their information afresh or correct all identified irregularities. But until that is done, there is nothing I can do to the situation. I am sure that the two women involved at Akiyi Umulokpa must have been affected by any of the issues mentioned above. It is not our fault here”.

 The traditional ruler of Awha-Ndiagu, was said to have stopped the construction of a Visit Every Community, VEC building project at the roofing level. The structure, which comprises principal and bursar offices as well as general staff room, was said to have been executed at the cost of 5 million naira.

For this, the current President General of Awha-Ndiagu, Chief Eugene Ozochime, accused the traditional ruler of financial impropriety.

“Igwe told me that he used five million naira for that. Well I wouldn’t know because I was not the PG at the time. The tenure of the PG then had elapsed but I have not been elected then. But, what I know well is that no one can claim to use five million naira for that building. Five million is a big money. There is no how he can spend up to five million naira on that project. And there is no account, no record. I don’t believe that he can spend five million naira on that building. It is not workable”.

  5 million naira Visit Every Community Project at Com. Sec. Schl, Awha-Ndiagu

Unfortunately, the traditional ruler was not available for reaction as he was said to have died recently in a road accident.

It was also impossible to get an expert to value the project because necessary information required about the dimensions, the building plan, the measurement and the location, were not handy.

The Principal, Technical School, Akiyi-Umulokpa, Mr Oruma, expressed worry that the N-power programme is of no use to the school, despite that some beneficiaries were posted to the place for teaching. According to him, the N-Power teachers have absconded, thereby frustrating the purpose of posting them, which is to cater for the shortfall in the number of teachers in some of the schools.

Mr George Oruma submitted:

“I look at the N-Power teachers in this my school as a group of people taking salary without working. I have never seen an N-Power teacher teach in the classroom since I resume here because nobody supervises them within the school. If they have supervisors that can stop their salary, they will sit up. I think if the government wants to help us, let them localize their payment, so that they would be paid by the principal of the school, where they are posted to”.

 Why the infrastructural decay and manpower shortage?

A concerned citizen, who preferred anonymity identified reasons for the present condition of the schools to include wide-spread societal corruption and lack of diligent supervision by relevant agencies of government.

“When they award contracts for school renovation, and when they are channeling money for the projects, they have to be very careful the people they give money to. At times, if they give it to the Chairman, the Igwe or the PG, the money will be diverted into other use. It will not be used for the jobs they released it for. My thinking is that whatever they are doing for or spending on the schools, they will engage people to monitor utilization of the money. For instance, several times, you hear that this so and so road would be constructed. You may even see caterpillars or trucks being mobilized to site. Within some time, all those things will disappear. Monitoring and supervision is key to getting value for money especially in the education sector because we are talking about the future of our children”.

Another Civil Society Activist, Mr Iheanyi Igboko, shared the views of the anonymous respondent, noting that there are allegations, though unsubstantiated of corruption in the school system.

“The true situation of things is that there are allegations which are yet unsubstantiated. We’ve had a lot of issues which our organization has not really investigated. We have the issue of ecological funding which is supposed to be used in some schools where there are ecological issues. There are so many schools where there are gullies and all sorts of environmental issues. And those had not been attended to by the PPSMB and ENSUBEB.

But we heard like I said, it is an allegation. We heard that the same ecological fund was used by ENSUBEB to do renovation in their premises. We are yet to investigate this and we think that if this really happened, it’s something that is very bad for our educational system because all around the over one thousand two hundred public primary schools in Enugu State, you will see one issue or the other. Even if you go to almost three hundred secondary schools, you will see an issue that needs the attention of PPSMB. Please that, this is not concrete. Like I said it is an allegation which we haven’t investigation. But, it is something that we are willing to look into”.   

According to the data accessed from the Office of the Commissioner for Education, education budgets in Enugu State had been on steady increase from eight point eight billion naira in 2015 to 10.036 billion naira in 2016, 10.438 billion naira in 2017 and 12.330 billion naira in 2018.

However, the Civil Society Activist, Sunny Nweke, believed utilization of budget is of greater importance than the figure budgeted.

“You can mention money, whether small or big, but the important thing is allocation, release and utilization as well as accountability and transparency. I’m not looking just solely on the budget. I’m only looking at if you say that this money is allocated for education programme, how much of the money was released, used and accounted for. Was there transparency in the allocation and utilization of the money? Proper utilization would now trickle down to getting what we need in improving the standard of education in the state. The budget has continued to increase but greater attention must be paid to release and utilization so we can get value for money, which will translate to better days for primary and secondary education in the state”. 

 Government officials react… a lot has changed since 2015

Radio Nigeria sought the reactions of the Commissioner for Education in Enugu State, Professor Uche Eze, to some of the findings from the communities. He acknowledged the infrastructural decay in some of the rural schools, but added that the present administration had since inception taken up the challenge.

“In 2015 when he assumed office, his Excellency set a high powered committee headed by the Deputy Governor to assess the state of our schools and make recommendations for the purpose of proper intervention. And in 2016, about four hundred classroom blocks were renovated including the ones that were constructed. We can’t bring all the schools at the same time. We look for schools that are worst hit. Schools renovated from 1999 to 2014, the ones renovated from 2015 are much more. There is no community that we haven’t had our schools renovated. It is only about building the structures; you also have to provide other materials required to run a school”.

 NEW CLASSROOM BLOCK BEING CONSTRUCTED BY UBEC/ENSUBEB AT COM. SEC SCHL, NEKE and UBEC BUILDING AT COM. SEC. SCHL, AWLAR RECENTLY CONSTRUCTED TO EASE ACCOMMODATION CHALLENGE IN THE SCHOOL

Professor Eze explained that the government remains committed to changing the face and improving the quality of teaching and learning in all the public primary and secondary schools across the state, with particular attention on rural communities.

“Education has received a lot of attention because the level of commitment that Governor has shown to improving our schools. Many people, what they see about education only is the physical infrastructure. Just like the computer system, the hardware is the things you see. Then the software, you don’t see how it runs. And that is why money goes into education, into the software, that is those things that are not visibly seen. So, as Government work to improve the physical infrastructure, government also tries to ensure that those other supporting factors are in place.

Our Governor believes that education is where the future lies. He believes that the education of these young ones is so important that because when they receive quality education, in fact, you have given them everything. And that is why the government is focusing in three areas of education which include: access, quality and relevance”.

On the allegation of truancy among teachers in rural schools, the Commissioner while restating the government’s intolerance for unwholesome practices among teachers, said supervisory efforts would be intensified in the second term of 2019/2020 academic session to ensure that the hard earned resources government is spending on the schools are yielding good results.

The Chairman, Enugu State Universal Basic Education Board, ENSUBEB, Chief Ikeje Asogwa, in a separate interview said a lot had been done to improve the learning environment in public in primary and secondary schools.

He recounted:

“As I speak with you now, we have done about seven hundred and ninety seven projects in three years. But you see, the more you are doing, it seems like you are doing anything because the schools are too many, they are thousand two hundred and twenty six and before this administration came, many of them were in terrible conditions. So for us to even do about eight hundred projects in three years, you know that what we are carrying is not a joke. As I speak with you, we have just drawn an action plan to do an additional six hundred and thirty one projects within the next two years. And within the next few months, you will see more rehabilitation reconstruction, renovation of schools going on and building of new ones”.

Chief Asogwa, who pointed out that ENSUBEB is making frantic efforts to access more counterpart fund from the Universal Basic Education Commission in Abuja, also provided more insight into how manpower problem is being addressed especially at the primary school level.

 “It’s a herculean task, like a tall order. But we will continue to do it until we get it right. Within the last two and half years, we have employed three thousand, five hundred and thirty teachers because of what we observed in schools that they really had problem of lack of teachers. That is also a large figure considering the economic times”

The ENSUBEB Boss also reacted to the allegation of diversion of the money meant for addressing ecological problems in the schools.

“I have not heard such a thing since I was born. The funds that the state provides for us at ENSUBEB is basically restricted to building of these schools, providing instructional materials, paying the teachers and then providing office furniture and all that. There is no provision for all these erosion issues. When I raised it with the state government after seeing a school ravaged by erosion, what they told me was that such issue is handled by the Ministry of Works. So, it is not in our purvey in the first place, let alone diverting the money meant for it”.

 This reporter also sought an audience with the Chairman, Post Primary Schools Management Board, which is in charge of secondary schools, Mr Nestor Ezeme, who equally highlighted the efforts towards solving the problem of infrastructure in the secondary schools.

“Let me remind you that we have three hundred secondary schools in the state. It is a gradual process. Some are bad I agree with you. And we are still working round the clock to ensure that we fix them in no distant time subject to availability of funds. Our Governor is doing wonderfully well in infrastructural development of our schools. We’ve never had it this good in the history of the state. But, because of long years of neglect, you don’t expect everything to be a quick fix of all of them at once. But so far, we are progressing.

You may be right about seeing schools that are not in good shape. But you should have also visited those ones that in good condition to balance things up. Our focus is actually on the rural areas. We have done more in the rural schools than those in the township. We have equipped two hundred and fifty secondary schools with ICT, all of them rural schools. This year alone, we have renovated sixty two building across our schools. We’ve done more in the rural areas than the township, maybe because I am also a product of rural schools. In 2019 alone, my board got one billion allocation and we have accessed over seventy per cent of it”.

The PPSMB Chairman also spoke on manpower challenge in the public secondary schools.

“We have an exco approval to recruit two thousand teachers. We’ve already done one thousand. We have also converted another one thousand volunteer-teachers, whom we met when we came on board, to permanent teachers. The outstanding one thousand, we are still talking about it. You are also right, some of our schools lack teachers especially in science areas. But we are making arrangements for employment. We hope to do so latest by February next year”.

On rejection of postings by teachers, Mr Ezeme said the policy of the government is taking care of that by posting teachers to areas where they hail from or neighbouring communities to avoid unnecessary expenditure. He added that rejections are not treated with levity in that those involved must prove to the board their reasons for rejecting postings.

It was observed that the involvement of the School Based Management Committees had contributed appreciably in addressing infrastructural and manpower problems in the schools visited.

However, the Commissioner for Education, Professor Uche Eze believed that much more should be done in that direction to achieve greater results.

“We encourage the School Based Management Committees and community participation in running our schools. Why we bring in community participation is because there is no school that is not located within a community. There are areas that the community will come in. There are areas that the local government will come in and there are areas that the school, as an academic community, should also come in. And we are trying to create a synergy that would enable all of us to work together to see that some of these problems are addressed. What we want the communities to know that the school built in the locality is their own dividend of democracy. And it is their responsibility to protect that school”.

Going forward, the government was advised to demonstrate greater commitment to accessing the UBEC fund and ensure judicious utilization. The stakeholders submitted that when this is added to the annual budgetary allocation, handlers of education would have more money to improve the standard of primary and secondary education in Enugu State.

Alfred Ajayi