Dilapidated schools: Gezawa communities cry out for help

Residence of Gofaru and Tofa villages in Gezawa local government area
of Kano state have decried the deplorable condition of their primary
schools and called for government intervention with a view to
salvaging future of their children.

Malam Ayuba Ibrahim Gofaru, a resident of Gofaru village told Kano
Chronicle that if government did not take urgent action to address
problems of poor environment, lack of teaching and learning
facilities, over 1000 children would be sent out of school in the
area.

When Kano Chronicle visited the two villages, our reporters observed
that primary schools in the communities have suffered neglect for a
long time thereby leaving them in the state of serious dilapidation.

Further observation showed that though some of the classes were
unroofed, learning activities were being conducted inside.

Similarly, the few teachers posted to the school share one small
office with their headmaster for many years.

The school has no single functional toilet and most of the pupils do
not even wear uniforms. Two available classrooms in the school were
divided and partitioned with zinc roofing sheets in order to
accommodate pupils of class one and two.

However, the pupils said the arrangement was not conducive for
learning as the two classes were too small to contain them.

Another resident of Gofaru village, Malam Usman Manzo said since the
school was established in 1973, no effort was made by government to
refurbish it until last year when the School Based Management
Committee (SBMC) renovated one classroom block which is being shared
by staff and students.

It was also gathered that, following the inadequate number of
classrooms in the school, some pupils were receiving lessons under
trees.

A pupil of the school, Isma’ila Haro said lessons could not hold in
the school anytime it rains because most of the classes leak during
rainy season, noting that students were usually sent home during rainy
season.

A teacher in the school, who pleaded for anonymity said, “Because of
inadequate classrooms, we have to partition the functional classroom
to create additional class for other pupils. While lesson is on in one
class, pupils in the next classroom are making noise which is causing
serious distraction to the learning process.”

It was a similar situation in Tofa primary school in Tofa village. Our
reporters observed that the school has only a functional classroom
block for close to 1,000 pupils.

A resident of the village, Malam Abdu Danyaro said most of the pupils
especially those in the Early Education Child Care (EECC) programme
receive their lesson under trees.

“Although we are not far away from the local government secretariat
but we were made to be far away from having moderate education
facility,” he lamented.