The level of deterioration of education in Kano that led Governor Abba Yusuf to declare a state of emergency in the sector has started picking up, as seen in some of the primary schools.
A visit to some public primary schools on Tuesday in Kano where such actions are being taken tells a lot of stories and exposes what the state government needs to do as well.
Sabon Layi Primary School, located in Bichi local government area is, a beneficiary of the state government’s intervention of building a one storey building with four classrooms and offices across all the 44 local government areas.
With 1,764 pupils in total and an average of 90 per classroom, there are no chairs or tables, and the pupils sit on bare floors. Some of them bring empty sacks or mats from home.
Even though the government had given an emergency supply of chalks, register books, reading and writing materials, as well as exercise books, the teachers complained to LEADERSHIP that they had no blackboards in the school.
What they use as blackboards are portions of the wall painted black, which makes it difficult to write with chalk on.
In one of the classrooms the reporter saw a pupil sick and lying on an empty sack while the remaining pupils were receiving the daily lessons. The class teacher explained that the school has no dispensary or a health worker but manages a first aid box which they contribute money to buy the medicine.
The school has only four restrooms of which the over 1000 pupils share two and the 46 teachers share the remaining two even as there is not enough sources of water.
Some of the classes where the pupils take lessons are on bare floors, and some are on dilapidated bare floors without roofs.
Responding to questions from LEADERSHIP, the headmaster of the school, Awwal Abubakar, explained that the schools had deteriorated for many years while expressing hope that the state of emergency declared by the state government might change the situation.
“Some of the classrooms need to be renovated because they can’t be used when rain is falling.
“The construction of the additional classrooms has been completed but has not been put into use yet. We don’t have enough restrooms in the school we share the four among the teachers and pupils.
“We work hand in hand with the parents to provide both sanitary needs for the restrooms and even buy medicine for the first aid box,” he said.
