By Sadiq Abubakar
Maiduguri
Students of government owned schools in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, went jubilating on Monday when they returned to schools after over two years of closure.
The state Governor, Kashim Shettima, has consistently assured of re-opening the schools and he made good his promises, but though the students, some who would been in higher classes, were happy, the physical condition of the schools was nothing to write home about.
They, no doubt, complained, bitterly, as reptiles, lizards, weeds and other form of insects have taken over the school premises.
Other complaints were, as a result of non-utilisation of the schools, there were no fumigations, inadequate beds, mattresses as well as insufficient desks and tables.
Our Correspondent visit to some schools showed that students were jubilating and impressively engaged with their registration exercise amidst poor facilities on ground.
Further checks showed that while no one was making use of the facilities, they were exposed to sun, moisture and water.
A teacher at Government College Maiduguri said: “we are very happy that the children are back to school and in full force after staying at home for years doing nothing. But, we are faced with many problems despite the fact that government has re-opened the schools.
“We have problems of insecticides at their dormitories and hostels which can cause malaria to the students, if we allow them to enter the hostels without fumigation.
The worse is that we do not have enough beds and mattresses, mosquito nets for the over 1000 students now being registers.”
“We also don’t have functional generating set like other schools as electricity from national grid is irregular and the old generator is already grounded”.
A male student, Musa Haruna at Government Secondary School Maiduguri and a female student, Naomi James at Government Girls Secondary School, also in Maiduguri, told our correspondent: “We are happy that we are now in school, but afraid whether they will allow us to sit in school because when we entered the hostels, there were no beds and mattresses, but the school building have been renovated”.
A teacher, Malam Adamu Mihammed at GGSS said, “what matters most to the school authorities is the state government has re-opened the schools, but it seems there is no enough instructional facilities and amenities to accommodate the increasing number of students sent to us from other LGCs.
“We now have over 4000 students, both the old and new and there is no enough hostel facilities to accommodate the boarding students”.
Principals, teachers as well as students appealed to the state government to provide the schools with more beds, classroom furniture, insecticides, mattresses, food and condiments, instructional materials and other facilities needed to fast track the students learning.
Report at our disposal showed that the state government had earlier released N1billion to the State Ministry of Education for the renovation and rehabilitation of all the public schools within the state capital, but the committee for the relocation of IDPs back to school, chaired by the state commission for education, Malam Musa Inuwa Kubo, could not meet the deadline until last Monday, when students re-turn to school was possible.
Investigations revealed that, particularly outside Maiduguri, many renovations and rehabilitations works were yet to be completed even though the schools have been reopened by the state government.
