Asubeb’s abandoned baby In Okija, Anambra State, a ramshackle school emerges for fishermen and farmers

Located in Okija, Ihiala Local Government Area, Anambra State is Adaogbe Migrant Fishermen Primary School (AMFPS) where school children study in ramshackle structures amid the hazards of wind and rainstorm.

The pupils and staff of the school who, at present, are living on hope that one day a saviour will come to bail them out of their pitiable situation are appealing to government and public-spirited individuals to come to their help in repositioning the institution into a befitting place of learning.

Established in 1999 by the federal government, this reporter who visited the school recently learnt that the primary school was later handed over to the Anambra State Universal Basic Education Board (ASUBEB) to provide qualitative education to the children of rural farmers and fishermen in the same way that nomadic and almajiri schools are being run in the northern part of the country.

However, AMFPS was abandoned with little or no basic amenities for effective teaching and learning processes. Since then the pupils and teachers have been eating the bread of sorrow. Today, more than 400 pupils of the school are being taught in three ancient huts equipped with obsolete chairs and desks and known as classrooms.

Enquiries by the reporter revealed that the huts-turned-classroom blocks came to be as a result of the goodwill of the Umuhu Okija people, the host community, although the federal government established the school in 1999 from a private house owned by an Okija indigene.

But the permanent site of the school where the federal government later constructed two classrooms block in 2009 could best be described as a slum, given its swampy nature, inaccessible road, wild trees and grasses, posing threats to the pupils and their teachers.

Speaking in an interview with Education Review, the Head-Teacher of the school, Lady Dioha Ugochi, bemoaned the unimaginable suffering they pass through in the area. Giving a graphic picture of their predicament, she said the school is not habitable during the rainy season while it is hot like oven during the dry season.

According to Dioha, the children have never seen pipe borne water, electricity and a school bus in their lifetime not to talk of enjoying such luxuries. She, revealed, however, that things are even better now considering what she met on ground in 2009 when she was posted to pilot its affairs.

“There was no chair and desk, no school building or permanent site to accommodate our teeming population,” she recalled. “Then our pupils were tutored in an uncompleted building, personal apartment of an indigene of Umuhu. I requested for assistance from Oganiru Ruling Age Grade, Okija, and they gave us this permanent site and erected some edifice for us to take off. Later, the federal government came and built two classroom blocks for us, followed by the Anambra State government whose own is still under construction. But these are not enough because we have over 400 pupils.”

When asked of the academic performance of the pupils amid the non-conducive environment, Lady Dioha testified that her school graduates best brains due to the unrelenting efforts of its highly dedicated teachers. The three pupils who took the first three positions at 2014 Face of Okija Quiz Competition organized, recently, by Obijackson Foundation, serve as a clear proof of that fact.

The Head-Teacher hinted that their academic high premium endeared the community to establish a secondary school, Adaogbe Community Secondary School (which at present has over 60 in JSS 1 and JSS 2) within the school premises.

She therefore called on concerned individuals, organizations and government to come to their rescue by providing them with more classrooms blocks, good road networks, overhead water tanks and electricity, as well as fencing the entire school premises for security purposes.

Mr. Igbojinna Aloy, an indigene of the community who doubles as the pioneer Principal of Adaogbe Community Secondary School, Umuhu Okija, disclosed that the institution of learning has well qualified teachers and students who are eager to learn, and appealed to Anambra State government to officially approve the existence of the secondary school arm.

He reiterated the need for the secondary school to be provided with a separate school building, furnished with library and laboratory equipment, books, chairs, tables and black boards in order to boost their academic activities, among others.

A pupil of Primary 6 and a student of JSS 2, Masters Philip Obichukwu and Chijioke Augustine in an interview, respectively, pledged to make the country proud once they are put in a conducive environment for effective teaching and learning.

Also speaking, one of the volunteer security men in the school, Chief Onyema Okam, promised that sky would be their starting point should the essential needs of the primary and secondary schools be met, even as he implored the government to place them (the security men) on a payroll for optimum service delivery.

From Aloysius Attah in the Sun