Kunle Adelabu & Wale Jagun
Members of the Lagos State House of Assembly’s Committee on Education have charged the state government to declare state of emergency on Odogunyan Junior Secondary School and relocate students to alternative accommodations on resumption.
Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Yinka Ogundimu, made the call after a comprehensive tour of the school on Tuesday, September 8, 2020, as part of the visitation of the Committee to schools in the state to ensure compliance with COVID-19 protocols as schools in the state prepare to resume.
Other secondary schools toured by the Assembly team are Oriwu College, Ikorodu, Lagos State Civil Service Model College, Igbogbo, Ikorodu Grammar School, Ikorodu High School as well as the Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu main campus.
They called on the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LABSCA) to conduct integrity tests to ascertain the condition of the structures within the school.
“The state government has to declare a state of emergence here”, Hon. Ogundimu said.
“There is a need for redevelopment of this compound. The buildings are defective and classrooms are not functional. What we have here can be described as a jungle and we cannot allow students to resume in this school because of the situation here”, he said.
“There is a need for immediate action to safeguard students and teachers”.
He called on the Tutor-General/Permanent Secretary (TG/PS), Education District II, Mrs Anike Adekanye, who was part of the team to find an alternative structure to accommodate students and teachers on resumption later this month.
“We will call on LASBCA to come and look at the school. The TG/PS should look for ways to redistribute the students to other schools, when schools resume”, the lawmaker told newsmen.
“We will communicate to the leadership of the House because the students should not resume here.
“There should be an investigation on the contractors that built the school in 2008 such that it has serious structural defects now twelve years down the line.
“The contractors and the engineers that supervised the buildings should be brought to book.
“Something must be done here immediately. We should protect the lives of the teachers and the students”, he said.
“There is a need for urgent intervention in this school”, he added.
The Principal of the school, Mr. Tolulope Ogunlola, had earlier told the committee that the situation in the school was terrible and that he had made several efforts to ensure the reconstruction of the buildings.
He revealed that the school was always flooded during the rainy season and that the main story building in the school vibrates regularly, thus endangering the lives of the teachers and students.
Ogunlola said that the school had a population of over 4,000 students with about 140 students in a class.
At Oriwu College Senior Secondary School, the Principal, Mrs. Ogunniyi Abiodun, told the committee that the school produced the best teacher in Nigeria in 2019 and the best student in Nigeria in 2014 among other achievements of the premier school in Ikorodu Division.
She added that the school was established in 1949 and that it has 535 students operating full boarding, while stating that they need more hostels for the school.
In his response, Hon. Ogundimu said that the school was one of the premier schools in the state and that it is an upgraded school that could meet up with international standards, adding that it was ready for reopening.
At the Lagos State Civil Service Senior Model College, Igbogbo, Ikorodu, the Principal, Mrs. Bolanle Oyesanya, said that they have 470 students with an average of 40 students per class.
While at the junior section of the school, the Principal, Mr. Kemi Olubajo, said that they have 14 classes for 670 students.
The Committee Chairman, Hon. Ogundimu lamented the state of a collapsed building in the compound of the school, which was built in 2002 and renovated in 2013.
“The State Ministry of Education should provide information on this. We should know why they have not demolished the building.
“The school is okay, but there is a dangerous building in the junior secondary school that is structurally defective and we will want the building to be demolished before the students resume.
“The school needs general rehabilitation as the roofs are leaking”, he said.
This was also the case at Ikorodu Senior and Junior Grammar Schools, where Ogundimu said that the population of the junior arm is too much.
He said that there is need for more classrooms and more teachers, while he called on the State’s Commissioner for Education to do something about the situation of the school.
Other members of the committee that embarked on the thorough visitations to schools in Ikorodu and engaged students and teachers are Hon. Bisi Yusuff (Alimosho 1), Hon. Setonji David (Badagry 2), Hon. Abdul-Subur Olawale Olayiwola (Mushin 2) and Hon. Raheem Kazeem (Ibeju Lekki 2).
