Between 7 a.m to about 8:30 a.m, there is a common sight in Ugbene-Ajima, a rural community in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State. Tired, but determined pupils are seen struggling with their school bags, alongside a wooden chair, or a container of water.
That was the case when DailyPost correspondent took a trip to the town, located far away from Umulokpa, the headquarters of the council. It takes no less than two hours for one to access the community from the council headquarters.
On entrance into the town, many school children were noticed carrying desks to schools. While those from average homes go to school with plastic chairs, the poor ones carry make-shift wooden seats.
The first point of call was the Oriental Primary School, where four teachers are in charge of over 200 pupils. Class two has no teacher at all, prompting the teachers to be rotating classes.
Two dilapidated school blocks directly opposite the only access road to the town, houses the pupils as well as the headmaster’s office, with no demarcation in the classes.
Apart from the absence of fence, the school blocks share common boundary with bushes and tall trees.
About five bamboo sticks “neatly” placed in place of ceiling in the office of the headmaster, serve the purpose of library shelves, where some important items were kept.
Narrating the challenges of the school to our correspondent, one of the teachers said: “you should even thank your God that the current local government chairman is grading the road to this town; otherwise, you would have turned back half way into this place.
“I must tell you that we are a forgotten people; it is only the present local government chairman that is even making effort, previous ones never knew that a place like this existed. They don’t even supply us with chalk, let alone registers.
“In this school, we have four teachers controlling over 200 pupils; what we do is that each week, one teacher will have to combine his own class with Elementary 2, because they have no teacher. That’s how we have been doing it. You can see that one teacher is taking care of both Primary One and the Early Child Care, with a population of over 80 pupils.
“We have cried for so long, but nobody has come to our aid, there is no water here, so our source of water is the village stream”, he said in confidence.
At the Union Primary School, a primary school pupil captured the situation in the school when he told our reporter that his teachers were taking good care of them but that the school was a bad one.
Pointing at the only classroom block in his school, the primary six child said: “please, government should come and help us; this roof will collapse on top of us”.
The school compound, which was not in any way different from the Oriental Primary School, also shares a common boundary with the access road and tall bushes.
Commenting on the plight of the school, a concerned teacher said: “There are 8 of us here, with a population of 140 pupils. The only school block we have is in total collapse, we have been crying about this situation but nothing has come out of it, our fear is that it may finally collapse one day during school hours and the consequence may be too disastrous.
“There is another school block outside this place, but we are sharing it with Central Primary School, Ugbene-Ajima. So, we do hope that government should do something about the state of education in Ugbene-Ajima”.
When our correspondent got to the Central Primary School, Ugbene-Ajima, most of the pupils were having their classes on bare floor. Apart from some benches with the inscription, Catholic Women Organization, only few school desks exist in the school, making the floor the only option for the remaining pupils.
“Those benches were rented from the Catholic Women Organization”, said a teacher, adding “they are not even enough and that is why many other students are on bare floor. It is a pathetic situation here”.
However, despite the bad learning environment in the school, the pupils appear quite determined to learn.
School block of Union Primary School Ugbene Ajima under seriuos threa
Pupils on their way to school with make-shift wooden seat
Pupils learning on the floor at Community Primary School Ugbene-Ajima, Uzo-Uwani
A five-year-old pupil going to school with plastic chair at Ugbene-Ajima, Uzo-Uwani LGA
As early as 7:30 a.m, the head-boy of the school was already conducting the morning assembly, under the supervision of the teachers.
When the primary six pupil later spoke to DailyPost after the morning assembly, he said: “they are teaching us well, but we are begging government to give us good school”
Asked what he loved so much about his school, he said: “I love our teachers, but we don’t even have seats”.
A teacher who spoke under anonymity also told DailyPost that the 240 pupils in the school were under the control of five teachers.
Model Primary School, Ugbene-Ajima and Community Primary School, Ugbene-Ajima proved no exception. In both schools, pupils equally sit freely on bare floor in the school blocks surrounded by tall trees and bushes. There is scarcely any table or chair for the teachers in both schools.
“Each time I come to school, I stand up in the class from morning till break period; that’s when I will go out and look for somewhere to sit down”, one of the teachers said while explaining the suffering they pass through owing to the absence of tables and chairs for teachers.
“You can see that all the pupils in my class are sitting on bare floor”, the teacher at Community Primary School continued, adding “but they are not left alone in this terrible situation. You can see that there is no table or chair in this class, so this way you met me standing, that’s how I stay till break time.
“We are not finding it funny at all, but we are still praying to God that one day, the people concerned will be touched”.
Apart from Union Primary School, there is no toilet facility in any of the primary schools in the town. The only alternative for the teachers and their pupils is the “bush method”.
The schools are not left out in the acute water scarcity in the town, making them to also rely solely on the stream in the area.
With full dedication, some pupils who had gone to fetch water were seen returning carrying a bucket of water.
When asked how they feel doing such errand on daily basis, one of them said: “we fetch the water so that our teachers can wash their hands; we also drink the water when we are thirsty; tell government to provide water for us”.
Meanwhile, a concerned villager who spoke to our correspondent called on the local government end the age long neglect of the community.
The villager, who simply identified himself as James said: “I am a member of the School Based Management Community, SBMC, in Community Primary School Ugbene-Ajima, but our effort has been over-stretched; we take care of the corpers and provide other basic needs of the school.
“Our community is suffering decades of neglect; it is only the current local government chairman that is making some effort, at least, he is grading our road now, we are pleading with him to extend his services to the area of education.
“You should have noticed that there are no private primary schools here, so unlike those in the town, we don’t have any other alternative; all our children must pass through these forgotten public primary schools. So, we are pleading with the council chairman to assist Ugbene-Ajima in this regards, we commend him for what he is doing in other areas”.
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