Our SOS4 campaign took us to Unity School Agbarho, Delta State, on Tuesday, February 12.
As we visit different schools, I’ve been making some observations.
1. There is a lot of infrastructural decay.
Many of our public schools have dilapidated buildings. Several of these buildings were built several years ago. The quality of work done by the contractors then were very poor. Now an innocent generation is suffering from the consequences of their actions.
This will remain a recurring decimal in Nigeria. If you check the buildings built by the colonial masters and the founding fathers of Nigeria, you will notice that they are much more enduring than those built immediately after the civil war.
2. There is an urgent need for more secondary schools to be built because the population of the students far outstrip the classrooms and hostels.
3. A lot the students come late to school and they are very shabbily dressed. A lot of the male students don’t tuck in or button their shirts; they look like street boys. I wonder if their parents see them before they leave home for school.
Lateness is like a culture in many of our secondary schools. You see students strolling to school as if they are going to a drinking joint.
From the look of things, it will extend to several other spheres of our social services, from hospitals to stadiums and airports.
This is not just restricted to a particular state.
4. There are not enough teachers for the large population of students.
The student teacher ratio is too high, just like the patient doctor ratio.
5. You do not see the enthusiasm to learn in their faces. There is a look of despondency and hopelessness in their faces when you start speaking to them. It takes great public address skills to arrest their attention.
We must, as a matter of urgency, tackle this decay of the education sector. If you destroy the education sector of a nation, you have destroyed that nation without shooting a bullet; it will affect every segment of the society.
Paul Kagame of Rwanda has transformed public schools. Parents and guardians now withdraw their children and wards to public schools.
Old student associations and NGOs must get involved in the revival of the education sector. There must be training and retraining of our teachers with improved conditions of service and retirement benefits. Teachers are the refiners of the raw materials to build a nation and the schools are the refineries.
You can be partners in this great endeavour alongside Salimo Wits Foundation. You can call us on +2348028258702 or send a mail to drcharlesapoki@gmail.com for more inquiries on partnering in the SOS4 Program.
God Bless You.
Thanks for the sacrifice my brother and compatriot.
While drawing attention to the decay and despondent situation of teachers and students, there is URGENT NEED to get the entire strata of government leaders to embrace the EDUCATION REVAMP CAMPAIGN else private effort may be frustrated.
How do we get the government to change their policies towards education
Dan
We need to get a round table discussion with stake holders as a matter of urgency.
This will include Ministers of Education , commissioners for education, education secretaries from local government areas, parent teachers associations and proprietors of private schools and Nongovernmental organisations.
Such a round table can at least generate interest and ideas that would form a blue print to work on.
Because a lot of the people in power don’t send their children to such schools attention is not paid to the issues affecting public schools.
Creating awareness and attention to the state of our public schools is a good place to start with. God bless you and SALIMO WITS FOUNDATION for partnering with us.
Dr Apoki , you SOS4 trip to Unity School Agbarho caught my attention. I studied in it from 1988 to 1993. In April 2018 when I had my late Step Mother’s burial reception there, I was too ashamed of the infrastructural decay I noticed. The principal Quarters was the worst hit to the extent that he lives outside of the school premises. The Principal office I left 26yrs was still that loquacious building. Efforts from Old boys association have not yielded much like that of Govt College, Ughelli. Security officers narrowly escaped death by whiskers when one of the heavily decked gate house caved in. Amount of Negligence of Public secondary schools was just too colossal. Thanks for your efforts at sensitization and really tasking the Authorities concerned to look outwards before it is too late.
Thanks my dear brother. Unity school Agbarho admitted some of the brightest brains then. We might need to work with your old students to find away out.