The school, are overcrowded with pupils and students sitting on the floor while they learn. But how much of what they are taught actually sink in such environment?
Zannuwa Junior Secondary School and Dawaki Primary School are twin schools that share the same building on shifts. The two schools located in Bauchi metropolis have a combined student population of about 4,000, occupying three blocks of two classrooms.
Dawaki Primary School was founded on December 12, 2006 with a block of two classrooms. As the pupils population grew, two additional blocks of two classrooms were added in 2010 as part of an intervention to accommodate the increased enrolment. Despite this addition, however, no furniture was provided for the other students.
A Junior Secondary School section was later introduced which starts its classes at 12:30pm or 1:00 pm when the Primary School closes.
A source in the school informed that the school has 1,127 pupils across the classes with an average of 180 to 200 pupils in a class.
Only classes five and six have an average of 100 pupils, but the rest have an average of 200 pupils with only 20 teachers, our correspondent gathered.
According to our findings, no additional furniture was provided in the school in the last 13 years. The school building is now in a very sorry state and not conducive for learning for the pupils. Students, including those at Early Child Education (Nursery section) sit on the floor in all the overcrowded classes.
School facing threats
Because of its location in the metropolis, the school is facing threats from vandals who have been infiltrating and vandalising its property belonging to it.
“We had many incidences of burglary in this school. The headmaster’s office, the principal and the vice principal’s office have all been burgled and many properties carted away. Dictionaries, textbooks and other materials were taken away from the Headmaster’s office while computer hardware, speakers and other items were also stolen from the Principal and Vice Principal’s office,” a source said.
The source informed that, all the cases of theft have been reported to the Tafawa Balewa Estate Divisional Police Station.
Books, other materials, lacking
Another source informed our reporter that the school is using the money it gets from the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) levies to provide chalk, instructional materials and other needs.
“We are also getting some assistance from International donor agencies and other well-meaning individuals. The USAID recently provided books to the school through the Northern Education Initiative Plus (NEI Plus). Also, the member representing Bauchi Constituency in the House of Representatives provided us with a borehole which we are using and our toilets were also renovated,” a senior school official said.
It was also discovered that the 20 teachers are grossly inadequate in the school. There are also no dedicated teachers to teach subjects like Mathematics, Home Economics and Computer. Furthermore, the student/teacher ratio is far ahead of the approved ratio as a teacher in the school has an average of 60 students to teach.
“Our classes are so overcrowded that teaching the pupils to understand is very difficult, especially in the lower classes where the number of students is high. We can have six registers with 50 students each almost filled up,” he added.
Despite the dilapidation in Dawaki Primary School, however, the Bauchi State Universal Education Board (BASUBEB) has claimed to have spent a lot of money on renovation of schools, training of teachers and provision of classroom furniture across the state, especially in the last three years.
According to the Board’s Spokesperson, Mohammed Abdullahi, in 2016 alone, 2,654 classroom furniture units have been supplied to various Junior Secondary Schools in the state. He added that 5,452 classroom furniture have also been provided to primary schools across the state while 320 units of furniture for teachers were also provided.
Abdullahi further said that 1,500 teachers have been trained across the state while a substantial number are presently undergoing training in various fields. Also, 29 VIP toilets and 30 boreholes were also provided in schools across the state. Aside these, 174 schools have been renovated across the state while 50 new classroom blocks have been constructed. Some of those schools include Nassawa Primary School, Wunti Primary School, Kandahar Primary School and others.
Our reporter visited Nassarawa Primary School to confirm BASUBEB’s claims.
The school has 21 classes with 2,352 pupils, according to its Headmistress, Hajiya Zainab Sunusi Ibrahim. She also confirmed the renovation of classes and provision of furniture by BASUBEB.
