Primary schools in Nasarawa State are affected by the challenge of poor infrastructure despite huge financial allocations to the education sector yearly.

Recall that a visit to TA’AL Modern Nursery and Primary School in Lafia, last year, also showed how 90 per cent of pupils from primary one to six were seen sitting on the bare floor to receive lessons.

In one of the classes, it was observed that some pupils were sitting on a bare floor while others sat on stones to receive lessons.

Most primary schools in the state are still begging for attention just as pupils of Ombi Anzaku Local Government Education Authority Primary School, Lafia LGA still sit on bare floor to receive lessons.

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Ombi Anzaku community, which is located in the outskirts of Lafia, has a population of about 5000 pupils with scores from neighbouring communities which are predominantly farmers.

This reporter, who visited the primary school during the Peace 360 Impact Project 2024 in synergy with Centre for Family Empowerment, observed that the pupils were still subjected to harsh learning environment with no instructional materials and other facilities necessary for conducive learning. A source from the school, who pleaded anonymity said, “Our pupils have been subjected to harsh learning environment. Imagine this kind of situation they are forced to learn in; do you think they will assimilate or comprehend what their teachers are teaching them?”

 He said series of complaints concerning how the pupils have been subjected to harsh learning environment were forwarded to both the state government and Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), but nothing has been done.

Another source from the primary school, who also didn’t want his name mentioned, said the desks and chairs that were brought to Ombi Anzaku Primary School were all taken away to unknown destinations, a situation the source described as a wicked act.

A residents of Ombi Anzaku primary school community alleged negligence by both the state government and Nasarawa State Universal Basic Education Board to their plights.

The residents are lamenting, among others, the absence of basic amenities in their community, adding that there was no government presence, not even a block of classroom at a primary school built by the state government.

However, recently, the Peace 360 Impact Project 2024, in synergy with the Centre for Family Empowerment, provided educational support to the vulnerable pupils in Anzaku Ombi community.

The Executive Director, Centre for Family Empowerment Initiative, Theodora Doofanchia, told Daily Trust that the project provided free medical care on mental health, nutrition, tree planting and feeding to the LGEA Primary School Ombi Anzaku community.

She observed that Ombi Anzaku LGEA is one of the most vulnerable schools in the state whose population at the moment is over 150 pupils. It has no chairs and desks and pupils sit on the bare floor.

According to her, during their first visit, they discovered that only few of the pupils were coming to school because there was no structure on ground for them to have their lessons. 

She expressed concern over the dilapidated structure on ground, noting that it was not a conducive environment for the pupils to learn and most of them find it difficult to come to school because there was no adequate feeding arrangement for them at the school.

“So the environment itself, we don’t even have trees. It’s an open place. If you look at it, most of the trees have been cut down. So we brought in about 200 trees to be planted in the school and we educate them on the importance of trees and afforestation in their community,” she added.

She said: “There are a lot of children within the community and most of them are out of school. So we have engaged some critical stakeholders and community leaders in Ombi Anzaku community for dialogue to see how they could form a synergy with Peace 360 Impact Project 2024 and Centre for Family Empowerment, aimed at bringing the children together on the need for them to acquire Western education.”

While noting that trying to convince the children to come back to school was a huge problem, she said, “This school is a government school and when we came here, we expected that we’ll see better structures than what we saw on ground. But looking at what we have, the structure that we observed was also executed through community effort before it collapsed last year.”

We are hoping that we project the voice of the vulnerable children in Nasarawa community so that the government will take ownership of the school, put up good structures that will enable the pupils to come back to school and enable them to have a favourable environment for them to learn.

“You know, if the environment is not favourable, whatever you’re teaching them will not make sense to these kids.”

Also, the headmistress of Ombi Anzaku Primary School, Lafia, Monica Adepoju, who spoke to our correspondent, said the school, which was established in 2016, started with just 100 pupils but now it has increased to 150 pupils.

“We have no good structures, classrooms, chairs, desks and no instructional materials in the school for the pupils. There are so many things we are forced to do in this school; we use pieces of stones as our desks and chairs.

“We are appealing to the government to come to our aid for the future of our children.

“Also, whenever it rains, it is difficult for the pupils to learn during school hours; even the teachers use chairs made from wood,” she said. She disclosed that it was blown off during the rainy season and the roof was also damaged.

Also speaking on the ugly situation, the ward head of Ombi Anzaku community, Amodu Abu, who spoke to this reporter, expressed concern that no block of classroom at the school and the primary school had no furniture; not even chairs and desks.

Abu, who spoke through Mallam Usman Yakubu who doubled as Liman of Ombi Anzaku, decried the stress their children passed through to access primary education, saying they “go through hell sitting on bare floors to receive lessons.”

He, however, appealed to the state government to build another primary school for the community, lamenting that ever since the primary school built by the community in 2016 for their children to have basic education collapsed, the pupils have been receiving their lesson on bare floor without chairs and desks.

He revealed that the elders in Ombi Anzaku community tasked themselves N50,000 each to erect the structure at the cost of N2 million as of 2016, noting that each time it rains, the pupils are left at the mercy of God.

The Education Secretary, Lafia Municipal Local Government Education Authority, Usman Suleiman, who confirmed the ugly situation confronting the pupils of Ombi Anzaku Primary School, appreciated the community leaders for their tireless efforts in building a befitting edifice for their children to enable them to acquire western education. Suleiman, who was represented by Muhammad Benue-Idris, head of admin, Lafia Municipal LGEA, attributed the collapse of the structure to substandard materials.

“Chairs, desks and other instructional materials were actually supplied to the primary school, but they were kept somewhere for safety.

“We received a report that some suspected hoodlums stormed the school environment when they discovered the school does not have any security and fence they stole some of the chairs and desks,” he said.

Meanwhile, Governor Abdullahi Sule, while presenting the 2025 budget, said education was a priority to his administration which informed the huge allocation in the 2025 budget in compliance with the UNESCO recommendation.