From Scholastica Hir, Makurdi
Benue State government have described some schools in the state as death traps saying over 2000 public and private schools may be closed and demolished this holiday.
The Director-General, Benue State Education Quality Assurance, (BEQA) Dr. Terna Francis, state this at BEQA headquarters in Makurdi on Tuesday, during a meeting with school proprietors in the state in view of the planned closure of schools and demolition of substandard structures of schools in the state.
The DG stated that the exercise has become necessary as most of the schools have failed to meet specified building standards and quality control and are standing as death traps.
He said the Benue state government is taking proactive steps to avoid schools collapse in the State especially with the recent incidence in Plateau State.
“Recently, a school building collapsed in Plateau and killed do many of our children, teachers were also trapped and that was because the building do no stand integrity test.
“So the first step is to sensitize stakeholders on the need to ensure that they adhere strictly to laid down standards in building.
“But those of you who don’t have structures that would stand integrity test by the Urban Development Board, you would have to close down.”
The DG lamented that many schools in the state is unapproved in the state and were just existing for profiteering preventing those who have invested their resources to provide standard structures to provide education from having pupils or students.
The GM Urban development and I have gone round and he has shown me those schools that are just death traps and disaster in waiting and we are going to act fast so that it does not happen and we would start crying.
“As it is now, we have identified 2,416 schools that do not have the approval of the Benue State government to operate and so far we have only cleared only 150 out of over 6000 schools in Benue and they have been given certificate of consent.
“We are calling on others to come do the right thing. We are also, calling on parents to remove their children from such schools before resumption of schools in September and move to schools that are quality assured.
“We have published their names on our website and shared with the National Association of Proprietors of Schools, (NAPS). Many schools got approval from the back door. There are some structures that are looking like poultry farms. In fact, we want to launch a probe on how they got approvals to operate with such structures?
He however promise that “We are not going to demolish immediately, we want to give them time so that at the end of the day, we do not lose any life. He has asked them to present their building plans from now to the end of September.
The General Manager, Benue State Urban Development Board, Town Planner Ternongo Mede, said enough time have been given to the owners of illegal schools and he had planned to commence demolition but the meeting is held to sensitize them and give reasons why such structures should be removed.
He said, “I took a tour to some schools in North Bank and it may interest you to know that there is a school that has already cracked and any moment from now it may collapse. After inspection two days later, there was a collapse in Jos and that made me had sleepless night because I know what we need to do that we have not gone out to demolish. But with this, most of the schools are going down. Certainly, they will go down”.
“Children need the minimum requirement structures and facilities to develop and operate. We are here to ensure that all schools meet those requirements so that we can raised whole and proper children.”
Speaking, chairman of National Association of Proprietors of Schools in the state, (NAPS) Mr Sunday Ojo, appreciated the government for the meeting and appealed to the government to give them enough time to meet up with all the requirements as it takes a long time to get the desire quality.
He said “On the issue of standard we agree with government that it must be stepped up and we are going to talk to our members to run their schools based on established rules as enshrined in our national curriculum.”
He also called on the BEQA to look into their complaints of multiple taxation including annual tuition, registration of business premises collected by Ministry of Commerce/Trade and tenement rate saying all these amount to over N500,000 yearly. Also speaking.
The Director of Catholic Education Services, Makurdi Diocese, Rev Fr Peter Apagher, while appreciating the DG for capturing the mission and vision of Catholic schools across the nation, said it is the desire of the schools to assist Government in ensuring quality education in the state.
He applauded the Benue state government for waking up to their responsibilities to better the education sector in the state, pledging to cooperate to ensure quality.
Apagher said “As a Catholic educator, ours is not profit oriented. We will come back for dialogue, it will be good to address us on our mode of operation. Quality is all we should imbibe to ensure the standard we all yearn for.”
He urged the government to allow a gradual process to enable them key into all what has been approved saying most of the proprietors would need time to enable them develop their permanent sites and move.
The Head of Education Unit, Federation of Muslim Women’ Association of Nigeria, (FOMWAN), Hajia Zainab Adamu Usman expressed joy that the Governor, Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia, is bringing back the lost glory into school in Benue state.
