By Adebayo Olodan
Parents, teachers and learners have bemoaned the decrepit facilities at Government Girls Day Secondary School (GGDSS), Oko-Erin, calling on the Kwara State Government to come to the rescue of the college.
Speaking with our reporter at the weekend, the Parents Teachers Association (PTA), Chairman of the school, Hon. Kareem Babatunde, said teaching and learning have become difficult under the current situation in the school.
“Most of the structures in the school that have been built for decades are already showing signs of weakness and the situation became worse after a recent rainstorm that led to the collapse of parts of the classrooms.
“Also in a terrible state is the senior school administrative block, which includes the Principal and other senior staff’s office. At the moment, the school has no toilet facilities and you can imagine the risk the learners go through anytime they had to defecate in the bush.
“On the part of the PTA, we contributed some money which was used to renovate a classroom for the outgoing students to write their Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination,” he lamented.
Also affected by the rainstorm according to the PTA Chairman is the SS 1, SS 3 blocks, solar power installation at the Information Technology Centre and the school’s signpost.
Speaking further, Babatunde said that the school management has written a letter submitted with pictures of the decrepit facilities to the state government through the Ministry of Education and Human Capital Development but nothing positive has come up.
In the same vein, a teacher who pleaded anonymity, said, “The situation in the school is worrisome after the roofs of some classrooms were blown off by the rainstorm and several other blocks developed cracks.
“Due to the sorry state of some classrooms, we were left with no choice but to merge three classes (SS 2A, B and C) and you will agree with me that such condition is not conducive for learning.
“Also, the teaching staff move office virtually every day and at the moment, many of us have relocated to the Home Economics laboratory, which is also in a terrible state. Each time it rains, our books and other teaching materials get drenched due to the leaking roof.”
According to the teacher, due to inadequate security, the school was consistently been invaded by robbers who carted away louvers, leister generator and cables.
Speaking with our reporter, a Senior Secondary School student, who simply identified herself as Bola, said one of her colleagues recently escaped snake bite while defecating in the bush.
“Imagine being attacked by a rapist, armed robber or kidnapper while defecating in the bush because at the moment we have no toilet facilities in the school.
“Also, most of our classrooms are not safe for learning and occasionally, we nurse the fear that the building could collapse soon,” she said.
Meanwhile efforts to get the Commissioner for Education, Hajia Bilikis Oniyangi to react to the issue proved abortive as calls put through to her mobile phone did not connect. However, when contacted, the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Hajia Maryam Garba said the state government will soon release funds for the renovation of schools affected by rainstorm across the state.
“When the rainstorm incident occurred and some of our schools were affected, we asked our officers to go round and assess the level of damage in those schools. We have forwarded our observations to the Executive Governor of the state, Alhaji (Dr) Abdulfatah Ahmed and in no distant time, we will attend to the plight of those schools,” Garba stated.
