Osun: Public education, infrastructure in dire straits

Following years of neglect and huge appropriation votes to education, public schools in Osun State are imploding. Timothy Agbor reports that children in need of quality education are already feeling the pinch.

Collapsed roofs, cracks on walls, fallen windows, lack of clean toilets and basic amenities conducive to learning have become hallmarks of some public schools in Osun State.

The infrastructural decay in some primary and secondary schools has become a source of great concern for stakeholders. The problem is becoming rampant in Osogbo, the state capital. But rural communities showcase a larger part of the rot.

The situation persists despite fact that education has been one of the top sectors gulping substantial allocations in yearly budget estimates in the state. Of the one hundred and nine billion, eight hundred and fifty-five million, fifty-four thousand, six hundred and forty naira (N109,855,054,640) presented by the immediate past governor, Gboyega Oyetola, as 2021 appropriation estimates to the House of Assembly, N10,711,328,430.00 (representing 18.08 per cent) was allocated for education.

Similarly, the sector took a chunk of the 2022 budget, as Oyetola allocated N26,609,411,740.00, which was 21 per cent of the N129,756,450,790.00 chunk.

Further findings showed that the Oyetola administration didn’t build a single classroom during its four-year tenure. But it did reverse some controversial policies, such as the single uniform issue and mixed schooling, the 4-5-3-4 learning structure, and others initiated by his predecessor, Rauf Aregbesola. Oyetola also said his government renovated schools across the state, provided educational materials, and trained/re-trained teachers to improve their performance.

However, visits to some schools by our correspondent revealed institutions in ruins, with learners risking their lives for knowledge in decrepit classrooms. It was gathered that most of the schools were built between the 50s and 80s, and that recent structures found in premises were blocks of classrooms built under the Universal Basic Education project.

The few basic learning equipment in the schools visited were worn out. Laboratory and food science tools were lacking. Some of the schools lacked modern toilets. A few still made do with dirty pit toilets, a situation, which has been forcing pupils into open defecation in surrounding bushes.

At Gbeja Local Education Authority (LEA) Primary School, Osogbo, built in 1955, sections of classrooms were already falling off, with cracks snaking across major parts of walls. Roofs had holes, while some blocks of classrooms had already been abandoned due to total collapse. The Guardian learnt that the abandonment, consequently led to overcrowding at remaining classrooms.

Youths, who often play on the school’s pitches at weekends might also have been contributing to worsening the state of the deteriorating roofs whenever they hit them with footballs.

The abandoned classrooms are also being used by some private tutorial vendors who teach candidates preparing for WAEC and UTME examinations. There was no toilet within the premises as pupils utilise nearby bushes.

The situation was no different at Ansar-Ud-Deen Primary School A and B, Oke-Baale, Osogbo. Some teachers and pupils, who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity, complained of neglect, deplorable infrastructure, lack of manpower and absence of learning equipment. The school environment was bushy and dirty. The pit toilet erected at the front of a block of classrooms was in a bad state.

The level of infrastructural decay at some schools visited by The Guardian in Ilesa was more worrisome. Some of the schools included Nawair-Ud-Deen (NUD) Primary School, Odo-Iro, which has become desolate, following total infrastructural collapse, Holy Trinity Primary School, L. A. Primary School, Cherubim and Seraphim High School, and United Grammar School.

In Ife, it was a similar picture of decay and abandonment of infrastructure. When our correspondent visited Idita Grammar School, Moore, Ile-Ife, blocks of classrooms had collapsed. Roofs were blown off, with doors or windows missing.

Neither successive governments in the state nor old students have remembered these decaying schools, despite the fact that the institutions had churned out some of society’s big names. While the schools remained in pathetic states, their graduates can be found across the world, blossoming in chosen fields carreer, seemingly not minding to look back at the schools that gave them their first embrace with education. On its part, the government merely looks the other way, paying lip service to rehabilitation.

At Nawair-Ud-Deen Grammar School in Osogbo, the students said their classrooms were not okay for learning and appealed to the state government to rehabilitate the institution.

Established in 1980, Nawair-Ud-Deen, located at the Oke-Baale area, has produced dozens of successful individuals from all walks of life. But the 42-year-old school has received little attention from government, a situation old and current students say they are worried about.

Most of the classrooms in the school were filled with worn-out chairs. The structures were old and in a state of disrepair. The school also lacked good toilets and other basic facilities.

We get drenched in classrooms whenever rain falls, say, teachers, students

Stakeholders, including teachers and students, have bemoaned the deteriorating state of infrastructure in Osun public schools and called on the government and concerned individuals to rescue the education sector.

Some of the students and teachers, who spoke with The Guardian, said whenever it rains, their clothes are soaked because of leaking roofs and fallen windows.

One of the teachers at C&S High School, Ilesa, who spoke in confidence, said: “Year in, year out, promises have been made to revamp infrastructure in our school but nothing concrete has been done. You know, we are civil servants and we can’t complain openly. That’s why the school has remained in this situation. We hope that this visit of yours will make the new administration do something and rehabilitate the school or better still, build new structures for the convenience of teachers and students.”

A student, Lateef Lawal, said: “Infrastructure in our school is very bad. As you can see, the classrooms are not conducive to learning. There are no windows and enough chairs. The roofs have leaked ever since I came to the school, and during the wet season, rain beats us inside our classes. We are appealing to the state government to, please, renovate our school.”

For another student, Abdul Akorede, “the school environment is porous; it exposes students to danger. We want government to fence the school and rehabilitate the building. We don’t have basic amenities, and our laboratories are not well equiped. Our libraries are filled with outdated textbooks. We want government to provide us with chairs, tables and other materials that would make learning convenient for us.”

A parent and one of the old students of NUD Grammar School, Osogbo, Babatunde Yahaya, also a professor of statistics, decried the rot in his alma mater, saying.

He said: “There is total neglect of the school by the state government in terms of infrastructural development, in terms of maintenance, even in terms of staffing. Among the issues the students want addressed is the condition of their classrooms which they said is not conducive to learning, and the provision of a perimeter fence to stop invasion by hoodlums.”
State records highest number of out-of-school children, performs poorly in external exams

Stakeholders have attributed the sharp decline in number of enrollment in public schools and poor performance of students in external examinations to shortage of teachers and infrastructural decay.

In the WAEC performing index data published by a data firm, StatiSense, last year, during the Oyetola administration, Osun State came last in the entire country, ranking 36th. Also, the state has the highest number of out of school children in the South-West, according to the 2021 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS-6), a National Bureau of Statistics data, supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Explaining the survey, last year, UNICEF Social Policy Specialist, Muhammad Okorie, said 14.88 per cent male children in Osun and 11.5 per cent female, making 13 per cent average rate, were out of school in the state.
We’re committed to fixing public infrastructures, says Adeleke

Meanwhile, upon assumption of office in December, last year, the state governor, Ademola Adeleke, had expressed shock at the poor state of public schools across the state, promising to launch a 100-day infrastructure upgrade.

The governor had embarked on a tour of some schools and healthcare facilities in Osogbo, observing the deplorable conditions of infrastructure at many of the facilities.

Adeleke had a hard time accessing the John Mackay’s Government Elementary School in the Oke-Ayepe area of the capital, as the road leading to the school was completely cut off. The school’s principal officer broke down in tears while narrating the ordeal of staff and pupils.

Adeleke walked almost a kilometre to access the school, only to find the classroom blocks and other essential facilities were in terrible conditions. A visibly worried Adeleke decried the state of the school and wondered what might have happened to the reported expenditure the past administration claimed it spent in the upgrade of facilities in public schools.

The governor noted his discomfort at the fact that staff and students were forced to stay under such terrible situation and declared his administration’s readiness to fix the rot and ensure learning under a suitable environment.

He said: “I have an ambitious programme to upgrade Osun infrastructures across health, education, roads and water supply. This government will prove that good governance is possible with sincere leadership. My inspection is to have a first-hand view, in addition to field reports from my team. What I found in places visited are unacceptable. Our citizens deserve better in all respect. I am taking up that responsibility with clear goals and targets. We will fix Osun public infrastructures.”