SaharaReporters observed that the school which has two blocks of six classrooms has only three functional classrooms with over 250 pupils. The rest of the three classrooms are totally dilapidated. It can be best described as a death trap.
The pupils and teachers in Community Primary School, Onugba Nike in Enugu East Local Government Area of Enugu State have decried the poor state of the school as snakes constantly threaten their studies.
SaharaReporters observed that the school which has two blocks of six classrooms has only three functional classrooms with over 250 pupils. The rest of the three classrooms are totally dilapidated. It can be best described as a death trap.
SaharaReporters during a visit to the school also saw that one section of a school classroom had big cracks on the walls; the ceilings had collapsed while the floors had also cracked.
One of the teachers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told SaharaReporters, that apart from the fact that the school did have enough classrooms for study and other social amenities, like toilets and water; snake constantly threatened both teachers and pupils because of the poor environment.
The teacher said: “The problems we are having in this school are very many but the most important one is that the pupils have no environment conducive to learning as they are supposed to have.
“Learning is supposed to be in a conducive and secure environment. There is no classroom, no seat for the teachers and for the pupils. We have three classroom blocks; the floors are completely broken, and beyond that, the classrooms are not ceiled, leaving our pupils to be congested in one class room.
“In CPS Onugba Nike, five classes were packed in one class – nursery one, two and three; and Primary one and Primary two. They were learning in one class. While primary three and primary four are staying in one class to study. The classes are very congested and secondly there are no teachers. We have only five teachers teaching over 250 pupils, that is 50 pupils for one teacher.”
The teacher however, lamented that one person taught the entire nursery from nursery one to three, while another teacher takes primary one and two with different schemes.
“Even the pupils themselves are complaining. They are asking how come they are staying in the same classroom even after the third term examination when they did not fail. You have gone around, you saw human waste all over because there are no toilet facilities, no water. The teachers have no place to even urinate let alone answer calls of nature. Because there is no security, villagers always come here to defecate,” the teacher lamented.
SaharaReporters learnt that the State Universal Basic Education Board (ENSUBEB) gave the school’s headmistress N2million to rehabilitate some classrooms but the money was insufficient because of the magnitude of decay.
“The government approved N2million but only released N1.5 million and that money has finished. The money couldn’t even re-roof the school buildings which are leaking water all over. We are asking the villagers to help us so that the children can stay at least in a manageable place to learn.
"Because of the dilapidated state of the school parents are no longer bringing their children to the school. In short, on several occasions snakes had entered the classroom and chased pupils away. In the headmistress office snakes come there often. Even adults can never go to a place that is not good to study, let alone these little kids that can contract disease because of the poor environment.”
When the State Chairman of ENSUBEB, Chief Ikeji Asogwa, was contacted on telephone, he did not pick his calls as the phone rang out.
Also, efforts to get the reaction of the state Commissioner for Education, Prof Uche Eze were unsuccessful as he could not answer.