Kunle Adelabu
-School borrows classes from Aga Pry, Yewa Senior Schools
Students at Yewa Junior Secondary School, Ikorodu, would resume back to school on Monday, just like other students across the students, but in their own case, to an environment not conducive at all for learning because they lack basic infrastructures required to acquire knowledge.
The school lacks classrooms as there are only three available for hundreds of students, while the boards in those classes have deteriorated beyond description. In addition, the ground floor of the classes have collapsed, there are no windows, and many of the ceilings are gone and others patched.
The school’s public toilet, which is about four units standing beside the dilapidated classrooms, is totally out of use and it is doubtful if there is any water system within the premises of the junior section of the school.
Mrs Ayo, a representative of the Parents’ Forum, Yewa Grammar School, Ikorodu, revealed that the school environment is not conducive for academic exercise at all, as she also described the only structure in the school, that is accommodating the JSS 3 students, as a pig house.
Students in the school also lamented how they have been at the mercy of other schools for accommodation since there are only three classes available for hundreds of students in the school.
Mrs Ayo gave the damning state of the school report during the Ward D Listening Tour by Prince Adedayo Ladega, Executive Chairman, Ikorodu Local Government, last weekend.
She emphasised that the school does not have classrooms for students in JSS I and 2 who are accommodated at Aga Primary School and Yewa Senior School, which are located within the same compound with the Yewa Junior Grammar School.
“The school does not have classrooms again. It is only JS3 that has a classroom and it’s not comfortable for us at all. The place is not a conducive environment for education, and it needs serious and urgent intervention because we are borrowing buildings for classes from other schools.
“We are borrowing six classrooms at Aga Primary School and we are also borrowing two classrooms at Yewa Senior Grammar School.
“We are actually left with no building after the demolition of the two Jakande structures without any replacement. We don’t have where to put our students since when the two Jakande buildings were demolished in the school”, she lamented.
She appealed to the government for construction of new structures for the school and rehabilitation of the existing ones.
“We want new structures to accommodate our students and the renovation of JSS 3 class which at the moment, is like a pig house”, she appealed.
A visit to the school on Thursday by our reporter, revealed that Yewa Junior Grammar School has just two buildings – one block serving as an administrative block, and the other has four classrooms with three of them accommodating JSS 3 students and one being used as staff room.
The state of both buildings are very worrisome and need full rehabilitation.
The toilet facility besides the classrooms, also seems to have been used for a long time, and one could wonder where the students and staff use to relieve themselves whenever they are pressed.
Some of the students that were seen playing football on the pitch within the school compound confirmed that they only have one block of classrooms, while the other serves as an administrative block.
“I am in JSS 3 and that (pointing to the dilapidated structure) is my classroom”, one of the students said.
When asked further, he pointed to one of the blocks of classrooms at Aga Primary School which is sharing the same compound with Yewa Senior and Junior Schools, as another block that is accommodating some of his school’s students.
Another guy that walked up to our reporter while taking pictures of the structures, pointed in the direction of two Jakande blocks which he said have served as classrooms for decades, and added that one of them has the class he stayed while he was a student in the junior school.
Like our reporter, the young guy, with disappointment on his face, also took pictures of the foundation of the demolished structure, probably to serve as the reminder of what used to be his classroom.
Speaking to our reporter after the interactive engagement with stakeholders in Aga, Prince Ladega said that Councillors representing each seven wards in Ikorodu LG and community leaders would be engaged in picking their most pressing needs from all the requests submitted, as projects to be addressed first.
“After collating their demands, we intend to engage various community leaders and councillors in each of the wards in picking the most pressing needs of the lot that they have presented during the tour, because we cannot decide for them.
“So, we will start with the most paramount needs among everything”, he said.
Speaking with Dr Saheed Ibikunle, Permanent Member, Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (LSUBEB) on the state of the school during the week, he charged stakeholders in Aga and the school to write officially to the Chairman, LSUBEB, and copy him for follow up.
He assured that such a situation would be captured and responded to since the school falls under the universal basic education scheme.
