Sad, Shameful, Pathetic *Disappointing Story Of The State Of Some Public Schools In Rivers State *Communities Still Waiting For Wike *Assembly Candidate: I Will Intervene
5 min read
Edith CHUKU
Students of Government Secondary School, Eneka, in the Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State are in dire need of desks, to salvage them from the unbearable learning condition of sitting on bare floor to learn.
Recall that in one of TNN’s reports on the school, with the headline “Wike’s Alma mater in Coma.” the principal Mrs. Onuah Uloma Stella was reported to have made a distress call to old student’s associations of the school and other concerned residents to come to the aid of the school by providing chairs.
In that chat, Onuah stressed that the school lacked chairs, which is their major and immediate need. She had also added that she had made efforts to seek help.
Regrettably, the learning condition of students in G.S.S Eneka, has gone from terrible to horrifying. The school which used to be among the very few alluring and sought after secondary schools in the state, owned and run by the state government, is in dire need of immediate intervention, to rescue the suffering students from such torture.
Incidentally, the state governor, Nyesom Wike, attended this school and is yet to match promises of rehabilitating the school, with action.
During TNN’s recent visit, it was discovered that the challenges facing the school include the near collapsing state of the staff quarters, as the entire windows of the one storey building occupied by the senior secondary class one students of the school are without protectors or windows, which is very dangerous considering the ages of the students.
Again, the school laboratory has collapsed, with equipment for practical classes now in ruins. The school environment looks very awful.
The needs assessment visit by representatives from the government on Friday, July 29, 2022, appears to have yielded nothing, though, the state governor, Chief Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, during the flag-off of the Rumuesara internal road in Eneka, had urged the people not to worry that he was going to rejuvenate the school.
Speaking with TNN in an exclusive interview, a class prefect of the school, Innocent Friday said,“we need chairs. Government should help us, we are their children, education is key for us to become somebody in the future. See our school, it’s very bad. They should help us.”
When asked areas the school needs help, Friday said, “Everywhere, but chairs first, we are sitting on ordinary floor to learn, no chairs, no library, see our lab. Athink you have seen it? Community leaders, they should help us, we are suffering.”
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Reacting to what happened to desks provided by government, he said, “the chairs have spoilt, they have broken. Me I can’t say who broke them, but sometimes you come to class and sit down and then you see that the chair is broken. We need many things, but for now, they should give us chairs, please.”
Another School in Ahoada in similar situation
Just as the Eneka school, the State School, Eligbo, in the Ahoada East L.G.A of the state is an eyesore. A house of assembly candidate from the area under the umbrella of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Uwuma Umanta Awala has however said what politicians would always say: she will give attention to the school if elected.
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She shared her experience with TNN, during her visit to the school, shortly after she was received by her maternal family, the ‘Umu-Ada Apia Royal family’ of the ‘Uchi kindred’ in Ula Ehuda Community.
Awala who is from Ogbo Community in the local government explained that“I visited the school a few days ago and it was really very appalling, because going there, I wouldn’t even call that a classroom. It doesn’t even look anything like a learning environment.
“They said it has depreciated or depleted over the years; they said before it was better than it is now, it keeps getting worse, you can count just about two or three desks and just like two classroom blocks.
“Pupils have to sit on the floor, the blackboard is like a cemented wall, just very embarrassing, there is no toilet, the children have to go to their homes to use their toilet at home, and that school serves a lot of communities, because that community in particular is in-between the Ogba people and Ikwerre people, so it’s not like it’s only Ekpeye people that attend the school, every other tribe around there actually attend that school.”
“It is in a community that I have visited just recently, let me say two or three times. The first time I took pictures of it only and I posted it online to try to get the attention of the government so they can quickly intervene in that school and probably start a renovation on it but a lot of people were like, oh it cannot be real, it cannot be real, so I had to go physically to video, record the school, so I went in, walked round and then I posted the video .So that’s how the video got out, because I want people to actually believe that a school like that exists.
“That day before I came in, it was raining, so the children had to leave the school because once it’s raining, there is no roof, once it’s raining the water gets into the classroom.”
According to her, “I made them a promise and I am making everybody a promise that that will actually be the first project I will focus on, because the people of Eligbo are good people and I don’t even mind, the present government can even intervene now, it’s not even about politics, I wish they can actually intervene now, I will be happy, do it for the people, it’s actually for the people, not really about politics.”
“I felt very sad, it was heartbreaking because you will not believe people actually go through such school if you do not visit there, something that you will just hear and wave like can someone really suffer this much, but seeing it and seeing the pupils in that school, I don’t believe anybody will have to suffer like this if God gives us the opportunity to get into power, nobody will suffer like that.”
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