Fawaz Adebisi
Students of Saint Peter’s Anglican School, Ateroko, Obafemi Owode Local Government, Ogun State, a stone’s throw to the state’s governor’s office, Oke-Mosan, are facing daunting challenges as they struggle to access quality education.
The government school, with fragile pupils, is grappling with a severe shortage of teachers and buildings.
PLATFORM TIMES observed during a visit to the school that the citadel of learning lack water, toilet, adequate classrooms and head teacher’s office .
PLATFORM TIMES gathered that the school had only two classrooms with a mango tree which serves as alternative classroom for the pupils from primary one to six .
Further investigation shows that principal officers in the school, use a section of a nearby church as their offices.
As of the time of the visit to the school, the government school, had three teachers in the school.
A source in the school who pleaded anonymity, told PLATFORM TIMES that among the three teachers, only one was employed by the government while the two others were provided by the school’s Parents Teaches Association, PTA.
Consequently, the challenges of shortage of adequate teachers and lack of conducive classrooms has resulted in a significant decline in the quality of education at the school.
The students, due to the logistics challenges, are being forced to learn in overcrowded classrooms.
Other pupils were said to be stranded with no teachers, resulting in many of them dropping out of school.
A parent, Kehinde Olatunbosun, mother of two kids, 6 and 4 classes respectively, who spoke with PLATFORM TIMES, explained why her children have stopped going to the school.
In Olatubosun’s words, “a school that’s not conducive enough for students, how will I put my children there too?
“It’s just as if I’m suffering my kids, and this education is very important to them but it’s not accessible.”
Another parent, Maria Sunday, whose children attend the school lamented how the school has dashed her hope of giving her children quality education.
Sunday stressed that the teachers in the school are not well equipped to train the students and are not enough to “handle them.”
She said, “how do you expect three teachers to take students from primary one to six effectively?
“They are all even jam-packed into two classrooms, this is just so bad.”
Duncan Emmanuel, whose child has not attended the school also called for the government’s intervention.
In his words, I want my children to learn and mix with other children in the community, but that is when the school gets better.
PLATFORM TIMES further gathered that lack of infrastructure has also contributed to the increase of open defecation among students in the area.
“Our students use the bush whenever they want to ease themselves, we have no toilet,” said the head mistress of the school, Mrs Folasade Obadimu.
In Obadimu’s voice, the school has been underdeveloped for a while and only being maintained by the PTA, providing teachers among other supports.
“I use the church here as my office because there’s no enough building, we have only two classes too for students ,” she said.
Speaking with a leader of a nearby community, Tonawo, Sunday Senu, confirmed that the school has been abandoned for a very long time.
“If not for PTA, the school would have been worst, we repaired the building, got two teachers and kept maintaining it,” Senu explained said.
He disclosed that to sponsor the PTA teachers, students pay N2,500, as school fees, each per term in a government school.
He therefore called on the government to help them make education more easier and accessible for children in his community.
SUBEB reacts
Reaching out to the Ogun state State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB Public Relations Officer, PRO Mrs Seriki Abiola, said the board is not aware of the school’s situation.
Although Abiola said she’s not in the right position to give answers to this reporters’ questions, she requested for full details of the school.
She therefore said the details would be channeled to the appropriate quarters for action.
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