The 2024/2025 academic session for primary schools in Benue State has commenced; but for majority of pupils in Okpokwu LGA of the state whose only prospect of basic education is hinged on public primary schools, the holiday is far from over as there are very few functional schools to return to. Many of the existing primary schools are but shadows of the hitherto sound basic education centres that produced most of the now illustrious sons and daughters of these rural communities. After over a week of touring these primary schools and series of engagements with teachers and basic education authorities, Abah Adah reports…
The recent pledge by Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State to rebuild St. Francis Primary School, Agidi-Mbatiav in Gboko LGA sharply highlights the broad decay in primary education infrastructure in the state. St. Francis Primary School Agidi, Mbatiav was where the Catholic Reverend Father, who coasted to power with massive popular vote in 2023 first tasted formal education.
Findings by this reporter indicate that there are many such primary schools spread across the state. In Okpokwu LGA, there exist a total of 81 public primary schools. While 61 of these schools are located in Edumoga geo-political district of the LGA, 20 are in Okpoga and Ichama geo-political districts. Most of these public primary schools no longer deserve to be called learning centres due to a combination of administrative, structural and operational deficiencies. Many of these schools hitherto acknowledged as standard centres for sound academic and moral upbringing, while still in existence, merely do so in name.
Decadent schools without teachers
Aidogodo, a fairly large community in Okpoga North, has for decades hosted a large basic education centre overseen by a headmaster, under which exists three primary schools coordinated each by an assistant headteacher. While all the schools have functional infrastructures, our findings indicate that beyond the structural façade is a gross shortage of teachers.
It was gathered that the infrastructural adequacy of the three schools is due to two factors – the proximity of the community to the Okpokwu Local Government Education Authority (LGEA) and the retinue of influential personalities from the community at national, state and local government spheres.
When this reporter visited the schools last July, the third term was winding down. At the first school, LGEA Ogbaga-Aidogodo, there were about a hundred pupils playing outside in the premises of one of the centres partially cleared after writing the promotional exams. Our reporter met only two teachers in an office marking scripts.
One of the teachers, who identified himself as the Assistant Headteacher, Matthew Ominyi, said though the population of the centre is encouraging, it is however burdened by shortage of teaching personnel.
“The most pressing encumbrance to effective teaching and learning here, which I know is largely responsible for the woe of public primary schools in the local government if not the entire state, is lack of manpower in terms of teachers. We have nursery and primary sections, making up eight classes; but we teachers manning this very centre are two for now,” Ominyi said, adding that as a result of this, many pupils have left the school.
“This situation [shortage of teachers] is largely responsible for the withdrawal of children from the school by many parents. When they come and see that the whole school has two teachers, they get discouraged. Even though we do tell them that we are doing our best to ensure the children are taught well, they would not be convinced,” Ominyi said.
He however disclosed that some parents who had withdrawn their wards to private schools before have started bringing them back. According to him, the parents confessed that the private schools lack professional teachers for proper education of children and that they opted for the private schools because at the time, academic activities were frequently disrupted by prolonged teachers’ strikes.
At the LGEA Central Primary School, Aidogodo, the story is also not different. This reporter gathered that the third school of the centre, Ogwuche-Achapa LGEA, had just a teacher before the recruitment of what a source described as a PTA teacher to support sole teacher who used to take all the classes from primary one to six.
In a conversation with the headmaster, Ikpa Abel, this reporter gathered, among other things, that there had not been any recruitment of teachers since 2007 despite the retirement of and death of several of them. “Before, this school had 12 classes with 12 teachers and it was going well, but now only 4 are managing the school. When parents see this situation, they are discouraged and as a result, they try to seek alternatives for their children,” he said.
Asked whether primary education authorities are aware of this situation, the headmaster stated that officers from the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Makurdi, often carry out routine inspection of primary schools, and as such are aware. He said these officers even sympathise with headteachers during these visits but only consoled and urged them to be patient that things would get better.
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At LGEA Primary School, Efoyo and LGED Special Science Nursery and Primary School, Odessasa, Ugbokolo, the situation is fairly better, as they are located in two major contiguous sub-urban communities of Edumoga, although they have their own share of dilapidated and crumbled blocks of classrooms.
At the Efoyo primary school, more than 70 pupils were sighted playing outside within the fairly clean premises at noon on the day the reporter visited. The headteacher, Augustine Uja, who was the only staff at the time of visit, said the school had four teachers, who are being assisted by some PTA teachers.
Similarly, at the Special Science Nursery and Primary Schools, Odessasa, infrastructure and teaching staff are not a major challenge. Ann Igomu, one of the teachers at the school, lamented the general shortage of teachers in public primary schools, saying it is quite appalling. She said the challenge of lack of teachers, in particular, and decaying facilities needed to be addressed as a matter of emergency to salvage basic education in the state. According to her, she and her colleagues have to take two classes each.
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LGEA Primary School, Ajide, another school in a fairly advantageous location along old Otukpo-Enugu Road, has 10 teachers in addition to the headteacher. On the day of this reporter’s visit, three teachers were on duty while the headteacher was said to have been bereaved and was off duty. The available teachers were supervising exams during the mid-morning visit.
While the school’s premises, an expanse of plain land, clean and with lush green vegetation surrounding it, has L-shaped office/classroom blocks comprising old but not battered structures and a new SUBEB building. The school however looked deserted, with few pupils taking the exams.
This reporter gathered that the neatness of the school was due to community effort, which periodically weeds the premises against the backdrop of the very tender age of the pupils not being able to undertake strenuous labour. In most of the primary schools visited that were not overtaken by bushes, periodic communal work was key to clean schools’ premises.
A teacher, John Ekoja, who said he finished from LGED Primary School Ajide, spoke on the abysmal population of pupils despite the good and healthy structures in addition to the clean environment with at least 10 teachers. “That I even have three [pupils] in my class today means that it was a good day.”
He revealed that sometimes, no pupil reports to school at all as their parents would keep them at will to assist them do work at home, especially in garri processing.
“I finished from this school. Then we had up to Primary 7, because no nursery classes, and we were running two shifts, morning and afternoon, full of pupils that if you saw the population of only one shift, you won’t believe there were others left,” Ekoja said, adding that the situation has become worrisome and even discourages many teachers from putting in their best.
According to him, a situation where a teacher would prepare and come to school only to meet only one or two pupils or none at all kills teachers’ morale. He revealed that there was a massive drift of pupils to private schools during a long strike by teachers as a result of non-payment of teachers, and that following the strike, the interest and confidence of most parents in the public school system waned drastically resulting in their reluctance in sending their wards back to the public school.
“And even as things have begun to look up for the public schools with the coming on board of Governor Hyacinth Alia, all efforts that are being made to get pupils back to the LGEA Primary School have so far failed because the private schools come with a lot of side attractions at the expense of effective teaching and learning that brainwash the people into believing that children are best trained there, whereas the reverse is the case,” Ekoja said, maintaining that the point is not that private schools should not exist, but that they should be streamlined for the sake of healthy competition in the system all in the interest securing the future of the children.
Ekoja therefore blamed the dying public primary schools in the area on lack of proper and fair monitoring and evaluation of the entire sector by concerned authorities; lack of will on government’s side to fund and update the public schools from time to time; corruption, particularly, undue selfish manipulation within the ranks of the authorities right from the local government up to the state level that impedes government policies from achieving their objectives among others.
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The shortage of teachers’ narrative is more entrancing for schools located in remote communities. For a rural local government area as Okpokwu, such schools are many.
For instance, at Amejo Ward in Edumoga District, virtually all the public primary schools are going extinct. Many of these schools visited by this reporter were literally not functional, as there were little or no activities in them, indicated by premises overgrown with weeds as well as dilapidated and crumbling classroom blocks, while in some others that have some recently constructed blocks of classrooms by SUBEB or through communal efforts in the attempt to sustain their school, the population of pupils is appallingly low.
A good example of this tragic scenario litter many of the remote rural communities in old Edumoga District, now delineated into six geo-political wards, namely Amejo, Eke, Ojigo, Okonobo, Okpale/Ingle, and Ugbokolo.
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A GRAPHIC case of abandonment is LGEA Primary School, Elugwu-Effeche in Ojigo Ward. The situation here presents one of the most touching dimensions to the decay in public primary school system in Okpokwu LGA.
For about three years now, the roof of the primary school, the only government presence in this literally forgotten community, had been blown off by rainstorm. Although this had been immediately reported, but despite repeated appeals allegedly made to government through the LGED headquarters in Okpoga, the headquarters of Okpokwu LGA, it has not yet been restored at the time of visit.
Tired of waiting for government intervention that never came, the community made futile efforts to rebuild the school. While communal efforts were made to re-erect the crumbled building, indicated by gables raised over the wall, they were not enough; a development the headteacher and community leader, John Ochapa Aba, said was due to economic challenges.
The entire perimeter of school is now overgrown with bushes.
Three pupils, ages between 5 and 12, seen passing through the school with exercise books when this reporter visited the community, said they were pupils of the school, but now use a temporary space offered for classes at a nearby Methodist Church, pending when the school building would be fixed.
Abah, the headteacher, corroborated the testimony of the pupils. He said he was just returning home from the Church-turned classroom when this reporter visited him in his home.
The village Head of Elugwu-Effeche, Edwin Idoko, said the situation was a big source of concern to them, particularly given the fact the public schools had been the source of hope for the children of the community which most illustrious sons and daughters of the community had passed through.
He noted that may people in the area now pay through their nose to send their underage children to private schools in faraway communities.
He said this trend come with grave consequences as many of the little ones are being lured into immoral acts to the extent that some girl-children return with unwanted pregnancies while the boys are initiated into cultism, among other crimes.
Idoko urged government to do everything to ensure that public schools are revived.
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At Amejo Ward, the condition of primary schools in two contiguous communities perfectly illustrate the desperate situation of basic education – the LGEA Primary School, Ogene-Amejo and the LGEA Primary School, Opidlo-Amejo.
While the LGEA Primary School in Ogene-Amejo is largely in perfect shape – renovated classroom blocks and complemented by a junior secondary school, which standard classrooms and accompanying administrative block had been built by SUBEB during the administration of Governor Samuel Ortom, designed to serve children of school-going age in about four or five contiguous communities in the axis, this standard infrastructure is wasting away due to lack of patronage as a result of paucity of teachers.
When this reporter visited the school on Wednesday, 10th July, 2024; the school’s entire perimeters, including the football field, were overtaken by weeds – a bushy football field in the centre and generally unkempt premises, including the old and new buildings – a sign that there has been little or no activities.
This reporter noted the immediate past administration had renovated and upgraded the school in honour of late 13-year old Elizabeth Ochanya Ogbanje who died of complications resulting from years of sexual molestation while sojourning with her guardians as a result of the collapsed basic education in Ogene community.
This was a school that provided the basic academic foundation to most prominent sons and daughters of Ogene community.
The school’s headteacher, Paul Odaduma, said he and one Ella were the only fully employed teachers complemented by four PTA teachers employed by the community servicing the school up to some point.
Odaduma stated that at some point, some parents started withdrawing their children and registering them at private schools in Ugbokolo, a situation which completely stripped the primary school of pupils.
Odaduma noted that all efforts he made to convince parents to bring back the children did not yield result, adding that the last straw that broke the camel’s back was the current internal conflict rocking the community.
“It became difficult for the community to raise money and pay the PTA teachers; so, they became discouraged and left.
“This, to a very large extent, discouraged the parents and their children. At the beginning of this term [third term of last school session], only two pupils resumed, and many of the children are at home doing nothing.
“In that kind of situation, even you the teacher would be discouraged no matter how you pretend. So, the crisis is a major blow to the school,” Odaduma said.
The village head of Ogene-Amejo, Cletus Onaji, corroborated the headmaster’s account on why academic activities had stopped in the school.
Onaji added that he heard a rumour that government even directed that the two neighbouring villages of Opidlo and Otobi have been instructed to take their children to Ogene as their new LGEA school, all to no avail.
However, a resident of the community who took his children away to private schools elsewhere, while speaking under anonymity, said what informed the decision by parents was the lack of commitment by teachers.
An example of the allegation he gave was that the teachers perpetually come to school not only very late but when they choose to.
“At times, you see the headmaster or the other teacher coming to school around 10am or when people who went to farm had started returning. Meanwhile the children been to school, played and quarrelled among themselves and are tired and gone home by then. That is my reason, and I am not regretting it even though I am paying heavily,” the parent alleged.
According to him, at the initial stage of the internal conflict, parents obeyed the community regulation which barred community members from taking their wards elsewhere for primary education. He said to strengthen the school, the community went further to complement the teaching staff with PTA teachers, but many were not impressed with what was happening.
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At hitherto functional primary schools in Opidlo and Otobi communities of Amejo Ward, the same narrative of decadence persists.
The LGEA Primary School, Opidlo has only one teacher who happens to be the headmistress. The classroom buildings are battered although the school compound was recently cleared of bush through community efforts as at the time this reporter visited.
The LGEA Primary School, Otobi, also said to be functional in the past, with many prominent personalities in the community finishing their primary education there, has a dilapidated, crumbling one-block of classrooms and offices with the field and other parts of the premises overtaken by weeds, indicating that long before this reporter’s visit, there had been no activities.
One of the residents who spoke under anonymity confirmed that there was no teacher in the area at the moment as the only remaining one who happened to be the headmaster left, after all efforts to keep the school proved fruitless.
He blamed this on government neglect, past strike actions, inadequate teachers, non-commitment of public teachers, ignorant and uncooperative attitude of some villagers among others.
According to him, there is a private school in the community built by an indigene where most residents now have their wards going.
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A visit to the Ichama LGED Central Primary School, one of the major centres of basic education in Okpokwu LGEA, revealed a slightly different story.
Though it had gone pass school hours when this reporter arrived at the school at 2pm, especially as it was exams period, the open field enclosed by both old and new structures and other indicators in the school’s premises confirmed that educational activities still take place here.
Met at her residence, about a kilometre from the school, the headmistress, Grace Apochi, however lamented that the public primary schools in Benue generally are in the throes of lack of teachers and adequate attention from government in terms funding and monitoring to maintain standard.
“In our centre here, which is the central school, we are just four teachers, but I employed PTA teachers to augment, even at that, it is not enough, the ideal thing is at least one teacher to one class.
“Then, we have ECCD (Nursery section) with one woman in charge. As challenges began to come, we had to introduce the nursery [section]to be able to readily have pupils for Primary 1 every section before others join them,” said Apochi.
Speaking further, she said: “The most annoying thing is that government officials seem to be encouraging the bastardisation of the sector by these private proprietors, prioritising them over the public schools when it comes to accessing things from the education office. What does that tell you; just like a private proprietor playing down his own interest to favour public schools, is that possible? More money comes from them, that is just the interest.
“For instance, essentials like certificates, even if you cannot access them for your pupils in the public school, and perhaps because they are limited at the time, the private sector who collect satisfactory amount from parents to pay their way would have acquired them for their wards as many as they want. With that, is government not shooting itself in the leg?”
Benue SUBEB: Failing on its basic philosophy
The philosophy behind State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) is to maintain qualitive basic education by coordinating through standardised supervision of teaching and learning in public primary schools and the junior secondary schools in every state of the federation.
A number of respondents who spoke with this reporter pointed accusing fingers at the Benue SUBEB for the collapse in the quality of basic learning and teaching, especially in public primary schools.
Efforts by this reporter to speak with officials of SUBEB during a visit on 17th and 18th July, 2024 did not yield any positive result as he was told those who ought to speak for the agency were on outside duty that week. Subsequently, phone calls through SUBEB’s Public Affairs Unit only succeeded in extracting promise by an officer who promised to respond, but failed, even to respond to a WhatsApp message, after reading it.
However, a staff of SUBEB who spoke under anonymity with this reporter said the management of Benue SUBEB is quite aware of the rot from the inspections it used to embark upon.
According to the source, the agency has been doing its best and still doing so to bring the public schools up to speed throughout the state.
“But as you know, everything boils down to funding, SUBEB can only work within what is available. And I think good days are here, going by Governor Alia to correct the wrongs of the past,” the staff said.
A decadent LGEA secretariat
A perfect omen to the stark and generalised decadence in primary education infrastructure literring Okpokwu LGA could be seen right from the Secretariat of the Local Government Education Authority (LGEA) in Okpoga, the headquarters of Okpokwu LGA.
On the morning of July 16, 2024 when this reporter visited the offices of the secretariat, it was solitary, dominated by the tweeting and chirping of birds as they hop in between the few trees, breaking the midmorning silence that enveloped the serene premises.
A handful of staff who had resumed work treated the reporter to a warm welcome. The Executive Secretary (ES) of LGEA was not on seat. He was said to be attending to some pressing official matters elsewhere. But on hand at the LGEA Secretariat was the D. O. SERVICOM and Information Officer, John Abah.
Mr Abah told this reporter that the sorry state of public primary schools in the local government area thereby corroborating the broad decay this reporter had seen. He said the decay is the direct and indirect results of accumulated neglect of public schools by past governments in the state.
According to him, the last straw that broke the camel’s back was the insensitivity of the immediate past administration under Governor Samuel Ortom.
“We are in this mess because past governments did not help matters at all in terms of teachers welfare, and to worsen it, we lack the teachers because there has not been employment for years. Non-payment of teachers’ salaries and other entitlements ran into several months before the current Alia-led government came on board and started paying. And now our hope is rekindled by this new regime in the state and we will do everything possible to support their efforts to ensure that all the wrongs are righted for the public primary system to be on its feet again in our local government,” Abah said.
On how long teachers were owed, Abah said it varied, adding that Governor Alia actually paid one month out of the salary arrears along with May 2023 salaries to the teachers when he came on board and started paying, with a promise to pay up in due course after some verifications.
“Some [teachers] were owed 33 months, some 26; majority, 16 months, while the minimum is 13 in Okpokwu here after the governor had paid one month in May 2023 when he came on board and started paying,” Abah said, adding that at a point, the teachers union in the state resolved not to embark on strike again for the sake of the future of the children. He however said it was however difficult to compel them to adhere strictly to the rules and regulations of teaching due to the huge arrears, hence professionalism suffered as the teachers struggled to meet existential challenges.
Lamenting the shortage of teachers as the major cause of the setback, Abah said for about 11 years now, government has not recruited new primary school teachers. “Even though many teachers retired while others died along the line, they have not been replaced,” he said, adding that in the same manner, promotions that were overdue were not carried out and when eventually done, it was only communicated on paper, not implemented monetarily up to date.
“As I speak, there are about 120 public primary schools in the local government area, though some are just like abandoned sites with remains of buildings put up by government because they ceased to be in operation a long time due to all these factors we are talking about, which you are going to see as you go round.
“So, one major factor that has contributed to the fall of public primary schools in Okpokwu here, which may be a case study for others in the entire state, is lack of teachers. In 2018, many teachers retired and have not been replaced till today. It was during the employment exercise called ‘Man Must Wack’ in 1983 when prospective primary school teachers then were made to write exams and were given automatic employment from Utonkon, Aloma, Omala, Ankpa, Gboko, Vandeikya, and other areas, and that crop of well-trained teachers retired in 2018 without replacement to date.
“That’s why when you go to some of the schools, which ideally is supposed to have at least six (6) if not more classes, you see 2 or 3 teachers, and in some cases, only the headteacher, managing the pupils by gathering them or jumping from one class to another. Can there ever be effective teaching and learning in such a situation?”
Coupled with that, Abah said, were incessant strike actions by teachers in those days of protracted non-payment of salaries. “This actually discouraged some many parents who saw the only alternative for their children in private schools. So, there is a serious need for employment of teachers here now, and it has to be regular, but well monitored, so that as old ones exit, new ones take over for the system to work seamlessly again.”
According to him, other factors that have contributed to the dearth of trained teachers was the failure of the Nigerian government to establish Education department as was the case with Science, Art, and Commercial at the secondary school level when the education system changed to 6-3-3-4, facing out Grade II, so that after finishing JSS 3, children found to have performed at best via aptitude tests in education would be sent there to continue.
He canvassed for the employment of new teachers “as soon as possible” so as to re-ignite confidence of parents, guardians and teachers, especially now that the Alia administration has started paying salaries on a monthly basis. He also cautioned that if standard procedures are not used in the employment of teachers in order to recruit qualified ones, it will not serve the desired objective.
He pointed out that in the past, the process of recruitment of teachers was politicised and corrupted leading to employment of many unqualified ones, who were either party or family members favoured at the expense of those with basic teaching skills and zeal but with no connection.
“I think that is even why you see women dominate the sector. On the one hand, many men cannot cope with the abysmal neglect of the welfare and the poor working condition of teachers; on the other hand, politicians and others in high places encourage their wives or idle dependants to go and acquire education certificate by any means, after which they send them to public schools where they would be receiving salaries instead of nothing,” Abah said.
Flanked by a few other members of staff who intermittently interject to corroborate some points in the conversation with this reporter, Abah however noted that some communities, and even parents, in some communities, are also culpable in the woes of the public-school system. According to him, many communities are embroiled in internal conflicts which ultimately inhibit the required collective collaboration with school teachers and staff for the development of schools.
Abah also revealed that a number of parents, due to ignorance, are often deceived to register their children in private schools by the mistaken belief in the attractive school infrastructure. Most of these private schools operating in the remote areas, he said, recruit quacks as teaching staff, who have little or no regard for educational standard, principles and methodology.
He told this reporter that operators of these private schools, which are springing up in droves, encourage parents to pull their wards out of the public schools and register them in private ones even when school session was about to end.
He said parents who would not buy common exercise books for their wards while in the public school would go any length to not only pay the high fees imposed by the private proprietors, but also pay for both text and exercise books from the private schools for their children.
Asked whether with the proliferation of the private schools, their products of today match the quality and standard of primary school leavers in the glorious days of public primary schools, the education officer laughed and said there is no basis for comparison between the two eras. “Nothing is happening; most times what are being produced today are rascals. Even during their final exams, we discover the children from the private schools who join our pupils cannot cope, because in their schools what they do is assisted exams such that no child fails by their results no matter how dull.
“They make sure that the pupils all pass, to encourage the parents to keep them there because they are after the number for business. Nobody repeats class and the parents are convinced that their wards are the best as most of them hardly have ‘C’ in there results but ‘A’ and in some cases ‘B’. But ask them to write anything outside, you will be shocked. During our time when it was only the public schools, anyone who reaches primary 4, before being able to write simple letter is considered fairly dull, though we were not used to seeing the ‘A’s and ‘B’s that have taken over today. What a paradox! Abah exclaims, noting that he does not at all condemn the idea of private school education.
“It would have brought about a healthy competition in the sector for speedy development that would help raise the standard of basic education. The issue is that, it has been bastardised; it is such that even the guidelines for establishing and running them (private schools) for effective teaching and learning are not being followed, and there is no proper monitoring, so the private proprietors only target the business side,” Abah stated.
On why the roles played by the Inspectorate arm of the LGEA in the past are not seen today, Aba explained: “They are still there, but not functioning as of old because they are limited by some of the things we have already discussed, and it all boils down to the neglect we are talking about.
“That department [Inspectorate], we call it ‘Evaluation’ today; they are to evaluate the school situation, teachers and pupils on whether work is going on well in public and even private schools within the jurisdiction and make credible reports for effective administration.
“But today, that is not going on due to government’s lack of will to keep the culture of checks and balances going. As a result, when an evaluator is to go to a particular school in a particular community, which they are still doing, but not as pronounced as before; he or she will sound his trumpet: ‘I’m coming ooh,’ and that is for them to get themselves prepared for logistics or fuel money because he may be going with his personal vehicle if he has, and that is because they don’t give them from the office here all these things that would facilitate their going to such centres and coming back.
“So, because of that, they turn to the teachers and, by extension the community, to collect what they can and forget the purpose of the visit. As a result of this, will you expect any credible report? So, the department is there, but largely in theory today. And any effort to revive the system must look at it critically because it is key to regulating the system.”
This special report by National Record is supported by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) under the Collaborative Media Engagement for Development, Inclusivity and Accountability project (CMEDIA) with funding support from the MacArthur Foundation.
