Despite budgeting N2.1bn and N24.9bn in the 2020 and 2021 respectively for the education sector, Bayelsa State public schools are still languishing in infrastructural decay, shortage of teachers and lack of basic learning equipment.
The problems have become prevalent in most parts of the state, especially in rural communities where pupils and students receive lessons in open spaces and dilapidated classrooms.
Daily Trust observed that the worst hit by these problems and neglect are primary schools which, according to some school administrators, have become worse since the local government administration took over the running of the primary school system of education in the state.
In some of the schools visited by Daily Trust in Yenagoa, Kolokuma/Opokuma, Nembe and Southern Ijaw local governments, some classes were overcrowded due to lack of teachers without recourse to physical distancing in adherence to COVID-19 protocols.
At the UBE Township School in Ovom, Yenagoa, Daily Trust observed that the entire environment was overgrown with grasses, while several pupils were fused in one classroom for lessons.
Some teachers in the school, who declined to be named, said the primary system of education in Bayelsa State is declining as the government does not pay attention to primary education.
According to them, since the state government handed over the running of the primary schools to the local government administration, the system has been embroiled with challenges.
They lamented that in the whole school, the government posted only six teachers including the headteacher, without providing learning tools for them, a situation that demands that they buy even chalk from their personal pockets.
They said that apart from the school being threatened by flood during the rainy season, the government has not provided water for the pupils to ensure proper handwashing in line with COVID-19 protocols.
According to them, the N15,000 impress approved for primary schools by the government has been further reduced to N11,000 and does not come regularly, adding that teachers’ salaries do not also come frequently.
They said: “Since the local government administration took over the primary school system in the state, we have been passing through a lot.
“This is the cradle of education, and if this stage of education is neglected as is being done now, we wonder what manner of secondary school leavers and graduates Bayelsa State will produce in the future.
“Ordinarily, with the COVID-19 pandemic, we are supposed to have less than 30 pupils per class, but because of lack of teachers, we have over 50 per class.
“How would you achieve physical distancing in such a situation? Government has neglected the primary education system in Bayelsa State.
“As you can see, teachers are buying chalk from their pockets, meanwhile the government is claiming that there is free and compulsory education. We need the government to intervene for the sake of the future of Bayelsa children.”
The situation was not different at the Community Primary School Azikoro and Amarata primary school all in Yenagoa, as teachers all complained of neglect, lack of manpower, deplorable infrastructures, lack of learning equipment and others.
Immediate past governor of the state, Senator Henry Seriake Dickson, had built infrastructures in public secondary and primary schools in the state, the administration also provided facilities for boarding in secondary, which was not there before his administration.
But most of the infrastructures need maintenance and upgrade, especially as flood always destroy property in schools on yearly basis.
The present government led by Governor Douye Diri is yet to look into the educational system despite budgeting huge sum of money for education in the 2020 and 2021 budget.
The story of Community Girls Secondary School (CGSS) Nembe, in Nembe Local Government Area, is even more pathetic as the school is in dire need of funding by the state government and serious upgrade of infrastructures.
Daily Trust learnt that the school was fenced during the administration of Senator Dickson, a situation that makes the outside view look beautiful while infrastructures inside are seriously decaying. Checks inside the school indicate that it still has limited classrooms which are now heavily cracked, making it unsafe and inconvenient for learning.
Almost 70 per cent of the ceiling in classrooms have caved in, and the rot continues to spread, and according to staff, this dangerous decay has existed for over six years now, while the government of Bayelsa State has not taken any action.
At the Community Secondary School Azikoro, JSS 1 students were seen receiving lessons in an open tent due to lack of classroom blocks and over 100 students were fused into one class handled by a single teacher.
Already, the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Bayelsa State Wing, has issued a 14-day ultimatum to the state government to address infrastructural decay in schools and resolve all lingering issues with the union, or they will have no option than to embark on industrial action.
The union regretted that the series of meetings with representatives of the state and local governments last year over the lingering and protracted issues of non-payment and implementation of N30,000 minimum wage, promotions and salary arrears owed primary school teachers and other critical issues bordering on the welfare of teachers and public education in the state have not been addressed.
In a communique issued at an emergency State Wing Executive Council Meeting in Yenagoa, and signed by the State Chairman of NUT, Comrade Kalaama Tonpre, and Secretary, Comrade Johnson Hector, the union expressed disappointment over government’s disregard of the series of negotiations and resolutions reached with the leadership of the union as to address the demands before December 2020.
The communique reads:” Following several entreaties and representations made to the Bayelsa State Government and Local Government Councils over the lingering but protracted issues of non-payment/implementation of N30 minimum wage, promotions and salary arrears owed primary school teachers and other critical issues bordering on the welfare of teachers and other critical issues bordering on the welfare of teachers and public education in the state, the State Wing Executive Council(SWEC) of the NUT held a crucial emergency meeting to reappraise the state of primary and secondary schools vis-a-vis the response of Government to the demands of the Union, resolve as follows:
“SWEC expressed dismay over the dwindling pace of public primary education occasioned by the seeming inability of Local and State Governments to manage the following issues: non-implementation of N30,000 minimum wage arrears for primary school teachers since December 2019 till date, non-implementation of promotions for primary school teachers since 2013 to date, non-implementation of Annual Increment for both primary and secondary school teachers due January 2021, non-payment of salary arrears owed primary school teachers in 2016/2017 ranging from three and a half months to seven and a half months, and acute shortage of teachers in both primary and secondary schools in Bayelsa State.
“In the light of the foregoing, SWEC-in-session resolved that an ultimatum of fourteen days from date be given to the Bayelsa State Government to fully implement the promotions and the N30,000 minimum wage to all primary school teachers and address other problems enumerated above.
“Should the problems mentioned above remain unresolved till the expiration of the fourteen days ultimatum, primary school teachers in the state would have no other option than to down tools.”
The Bayelsa State Commissioner for Education, Hon. Gentle Emelah Gentle, confirmed that the state government is aware of the problems facing the public schools in the state and is working to resolve them.
Emelah said that Governor Douye Diri’s administration is making efforts at improving the education sector of the state, and pleaded for understanding from members of the Nigeria Union of Teachers and other education stakeholders.
Responding to issues concerning lack of teachers in public schools in the state, Emelah said the government is already carrying out an audit exercise which is basically aimed at fishing out those with educational qualifications already serving in the Civil Service to be redeployed to schools to teach as the dwindling economy may not allow for the employment of new teachers at the moment.
He disclosed that the state government has already awarded contracts for schools’ rehabilitations across the state in order to address some of the infrastructural challenges faced by some schools in the state.
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