Conducive school environment is the panacea for effective learning, according to international best practice.
For Boarding Primary School in Murfa-Kalam in Damaturu local government area of Yobe state, the reverse is the case as learning is done in the worst of environment as observed by DAILY POST correspondent who visited the school recently before it went on vacation.
The only primary boarding school in the state, located at the Murfa-Kalam village, about 12km away from Damaturu, the Yobe State capital, is made up of two blocks of three class rooms each, containing 120 pupils population in the school.
There are three dormitories in all, two for males and one for females which are not enough for comfortable living.
The school with five teaching staff and four non teaching staff is not in the best of conditions as observed.
Class one to three pupils are studying on bare flour, torn off ceiling and broken windows, while class four to six are also not better as they are taking their lessons under rough environment.
The level of sickness is high among the pupils due to lack medical facility to cater for people in the school and by extension the community when the need arises, despite their closeness to the state’s seat of power.
Alhasan Amadu is one of the eleven indisposed pupils, where ten of them were taken homes for treatment.
When asked what is bedevilling him? Amadu said while sobbing with hot tears running down his cheeks, “I am having a serious headache since last night”.
On the other side, however, Mohammed Idriss is one of the class six pupils that had a class test in the morning when DAILY POST visited the school and their scripts were handed over to them.
The brilliant boy scored the highest of 40/40 marks in the Computer Education.
“I am appealing to the authorities concerned to come to our aid so that we can have a better learning environment”, Idriss appealed.
Other challenges facing the pupils as learnt at the school include: lack of good toilet facility, mosquito nets which was responsible for the high rate of sickness among the pupils, inadequate teaching and learning materials and above all the security of lives and property.
There are no security operatives manning the school despite its remote location, hence the pupils and their mentors are left at the mercy of their prayers and supplications for divine protection against evil doers such as Boko Haram terrorists.
Mohammed Garba is the Headmaster of the Murfa-Kalam Boarding Primary School and he called on the local and state governments to do the needful and better the lot of the pupils who are aspiring to become leaders of tomorrow.
“I am calling on the Damaturu local government and the state Ministry of Education to come to the rescue of these learners by improving their living condition and also renovating the dilapidated structures in the school for effective teaching and learning to take place”, the HM called.
In an interview with DAILY POST, the Executive Chairman of Damaturu local government area, Bulama Modu said, “plan is in the pipeline to renovate the school to standard and also to improve the living condition of the pupils”.
The prayers of the pupils are that security guards are brought to the school among other needs to build their confidence and improve learning in the school.
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