By Ikeh Chukwu
A popular axiom holds that education is the best legacy for a secure future, thus, an educated generation is a secure generation.
Among its many responsibilities, the provision of basic education is a duty of government, especially in a democratic society where leaders are elected to serve the people.
Sadly, this has not been the case for the Ochii Ogwa Primary School, in Mbaitoli council area of Imo, where the few surviving classroom blocks have become dilapidated.
The C- Advocate correspondent who visited the school reports that children could be seen sitting on the bare floor to learn. This is unhygienic as it exposes them to germs and bacteria. It also constitutes a posture issue as the students have to endure uncomfortable positions to write by mostly placing their books on their knees.
Also, there is the absence of standard toilet facilities that aid good hygiene and prevent the spread of diseases.
With half fallen roofs of classroom blocks and susceptibility to attack by animals in the nearby thick bushes, one is left to wonder if the state and local governments still remember basic education.
Meanwhile , the sum of N42.23 billion has been allocated to education in the state’s 2024 budget, representing over 10 percent of the total N491.2 billion budgeted for recurrent expenditure out of a total state annual budget of N592.2 billion.
How much of the budget has so far been spent on education infrastructure is not yet accounted for, even as the fiscal year winds down, with a little more than a couple of months remaining.
C- Advocate therefore calls on the Imo state Ministry of Education and all stakeholders in the sector to ensure that adequate funding and measures are put in place to make for better learning conditions and improved outcomes for school children.
Ochii Ogwa Primary School is only one out of many others whose environments discourage learning and have received little or no attention from the government.
For the records, Mbaitoli council area is entitled to and receives a monthly allocation of N356 million as a result of the local government financial autonomy bill recently signed into law by President Bola Tinubu.
These and other funds should be put to their best use to write this obvious wrong in the state’s education sector and secure the future of the Nigerian people through quality education.
