Worried by the dilapidated state of the Ogba Primary School 1 located in the busy Ogba area of Lagos State, western Nigeria, the state House of Assembly has ordered the Deputy Governor, Dr. Idiat Adebule, to immediately commence an integrity test on the two-storey building.

The building, according to lawmakers, was showing signs of collapse just 23 years after its construction and needed urgent attention.

The report, as presented by Lanre Ogunyemi, chairman of the House Committee on Education, recommends that where the dilapidated building meets the test, it should be immediately renovated before the pupils are returned to their classrooms at the earliest possible time.

The House also directed the Ministry for the Environment of the state to deflood the school as the school had remained flooded.

A photograph sighted by our correspondents showed some of the pupils swimming and playing in the flood.

Ogunyemi said his committee visited the school following a petition by the school’s Parents Forum Association and that it observed that “the building is indeed dilapidated and therefore not conducive for learning. Besides, it is also unsafe to the lives of the pupils and teachers in the school.

“The pupils have to be moved out of the building to share classrooms in Ogba School 2.”

Some of the lawmakers observed that some of the classrooms were overcrowded thus endagering the lives of the pupils. They also noted that there were no toilet facilities in the school and that the pupils are forced to use the facilities in the school 2.

“The only toilet in the school is blocked and the school shares convenience with Ogba Primary School 2,” the report states.

Contributing to the report, Rasheed Makinde, a lawmaker, suggested that integrity test should be carried on all schools in the state adding that a school in the Ojokoro area was suffering same fate.

Some of the lawmakers noted that parts of the building was falling off.

A lawmaker, Abiodun Tobun, said part of the recommendation should be that if the building fails integrity test, it should be urgently demolished.

The lawmakers wondered why a building that was supposed to last for a hundred years was crumbling just 23 years after its construction.

They urged the government to henceforth engage professional contractors in projects in the state.

The petition by the Parents Forum Association stated that the building was totally weak and that teachers and pupils have complained of vibrations and cracking sound in the classrooms adding that this could lead to sudden collapse of the building.

“The school building is sinking due to continuous flooding of the school compound; the building is no longer conducive for learning and also dangerous to the lives of pupils and teachers.

The committee said during an on-the-spot assessment of the school, the headmistress submitted that the school was built in 1983/84 and that it was renovated in 1994.

The report said the headmistress disclosed that she had written several letters to the Ministry of Education, State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, and the Ojodu Local Council Development without any positive response.

“Only SUBEB responded by sending engineers who inspected the school building and advised that the students be moved out of the building.

“The pupils were moved from the dilapidated building and relocated to Ogba Primary School 2 in the same compound,” the headmistress reportedly told the committee.

Source: nigeriaschoolblog.com