₦airaland Forum

egift: Whoever the people want should be elected. But if you are supporting this fraud - the worst election in the history of Nigeria because it favours you, then we have nothing further to discuss.

There have never been an election as bad as this in the history of Nigeria. Call a spade a spade.

Osun state election was free and fair because Salami bastardized the judiciary system abi?

No need for election! Decrear Obiano the winner

SLIDE waxie: People's intelligence are wasted and low in Nigeria o!

1. One said APC is a violent praty for a 'peaceful protest' and he got some 'likes' ;

2. One said what concerns Osun with Anambra, and he got 'likes' too

When has a peaceful protest turned 'violent'?

When did it bcome a sin for anybody of a different Nationality to protest over disparities in other world?

Apperantly, aregbesola was tryin to be civil in a primitive environment

Na joblessness de wory una people

If police, army, navy, airforce and other law enforcement agencies go on strike @ the same time agberos and motor pack touts will overrun Lagos.
Boko haram will Islamize north.
Kidnappers will kidnap sitting governors in the East.
We will never hear anything like shell in the niger delta again

A story on the dearth of good furniture in Ikeja Grammar School, Lagos, published by Saturday PUNCH last Saturday drew a wrong chord with the Lagos State Government.

 Last Monday, it suspended the school principal for allowing this writer to gain access to the school premises and take photographs of classes where pupils sat on windows and concrete blocks while learning.

Even though it was reported in the story titled, “Lagos school where pupils learn sitting on windows, concrete blocks” that the principal was not around when this journalist visited the school, Saturday PUNCH learnt that her superiors have decided to hang the blame of the scandal on her.

Efforts to speak to the principal as the news of her suspension broke on Monday, were unsuccessful as she was nowhere to be found in the school.  Teachers are not allowed to speak with the press in the state.

But an irked teacher, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the principal was removed from her position as a punishment on Monday.

The teacher said,  “This is more serious than you think; you have put this school in trouble. The education ‘oga’ (commissioner) and other state officials summoned the principal on Monday and she has been removed from her position.

“She was asked to start reporting to the office of the permanent secretary of the ministry of education as from Tuesday.”

Our correspondent, who paid an undercover visit to the school on Monday, noticed that the issue had put all the teachers in the school on edge as many of them were seen holding copies of the published report.

It was also learnt that the state government’s education top officials had gone a step further by querying a teacher who was teaching a class when photographs of an array of broken furniture the pupils sat on were taken.

Our source within the school said another teacher, a head of department, is also facing the ministry’s ‘fire’ in connection to the said publication. The Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Olayinka Oladunjoye, had last week Friday admitted that her ministry was aware of the issue of the bad furniture in the school.

“Thank you for your observation; we are not unaware. As I write, chairs are being supplied and before too long, it will go round the schools,” a text message from her said on Friday. But by Monday when this correspondent visited the school, no new chairs had been supplied.

This correspondent got in touch with the Lagos State Chairman of the All Nigeria Conference of Principals of Secondary Schools, Mr. Babatunde Philips, to find out if the state of furniture in secondary schools in the state had been a subject of discussion in the conference’s deliberations in the past.

But Phillips said he could not comment on the issue at the time.

“I heard about the suspension of the principal (of Ikeja Grammar School). It makes me very sad that she had to be suspended. But we are planning to make our findings about the issue. I cannot say anything about the issue right now,” he said.

The state government’s action after last Saturday’s publication seems to have become a trend in the way it handles issues relating to its responsibilities.

In August 2013, after Saturday PUNCH published a report on the state of an orphanage located beside a house owned by the Deputy Governor, Mrs. Orelope Adejoke-Adefulire, operated by Mrs. Rose Nwachukwu, the state government closed down the orphanage and arrested the woman even though experts said officials should have monitored the orphanage’s activities in the first place.

When a text message was sent to Oladunjoye on Thursday on the report that the principal was suspended, Oladunjoye replied simply, “Which report is that please? I know a report is already in the public domain.”

Yes the principal must be punished. How dare he allow the openly known dirty laundry of our public schools to be washed in public. It’s common knowledge that public schools’ infrastructure is so terrible that only the children of the poor attend them. A society that neglects the education of its children nears the precipice of its demise

Subscribing......

BuhahahAhahahaah omo see person taken panadol for another persons headache
#spit on the floor

Up APC…The progressives indeed…So over N20billion IGR fashola is getting from lagos is not enough to fix some schools and his party is ranting on the pages of newspapers about their achievements? Shame..

The World Bank as the largest external financier of education in the developed world found a reason to partner with the Lagos State Government to develop education to the tune of $90m, an initiative called the Lagos Eko Project.

The body seems to recognise the fact that as the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria –the most populous black nation in the world – education in the state needs all the attention it can get.

But if the state of the furniture in public secondary schools in the state is anything to go by, this needed attention is lacking.

Investigation has revealed that the issue of bad furniture in the schools might be more common than expected in the state.

Public secondary schools visited in different parts of the Lagos mainland on Tuesday and Wednesday revealed that much.

When this correspondent visited Ewutuntun Grammar School in Mafoluku area of Oshodi, pupils were seen sitting on the bare floor in some classes while lessons were going on.

In one of the classes in the junior section of the school, a female teacher was speaking animatedly as she delivered her lesson, while the pupils, who sat in various fashion, listened with rapt attention. Some sat on their desks writing on books balanced on their hands.

But what was unusual about the classroom was the fact that some of the pupils who could not find chairs to sit on, sat on the bare floor in front of the class as they strained their necks upwards to gaze at the teacher.

In another junior class in the school, a couple of pupils sat at the back of the classroom, on the bare floor with their backs resting on the wall while they laid their books on their laps to write.

Perhaps, tired by her long sitting on the cold hard ground, one of the pupils on the floor simply lay down beside her friends and dozed off. No teacher was in the classroom at the time.

One of the pupils sitting on the floor said he found it more “comfortable” sitting on the floor than on the bad planks.

“The broken desks tear our uniforms when we try to manage them. Sometimes we put planks from the desks on the floor and sit on them but those who cannot find planks sit on the ground,” the pupil said.

It turned out that the problem of furniture is not peculiar to only the junior class as is the case in Ikeja Grammar School.

In one of the classrooms used by the senior section of Ewutuntun Grammar School, some of the pupils could be seen sitting on planks of broken desks as a lesson went on.

The pupils were about 40 in the class and most of them had a place to sit. But it did not seem likely that many of them were actually comfortable on what they were sitting on.

A couple of the pupils stood at the door looking in as a few stood beside the window inside as they looked on at the teacher in front of the classroom.

Senior class two was a mess of scattered chairs that were in poor state but which the pupils still had to make do with. The desks and wooden contraptions that make up their chairs, seemed impossible to be arranged in orderly rows. The class looked like jumble of broken chairs and desks.

At Iloro Grammar School in Agege area of Lagos, the story was the same.

A long perimeter fence, big compound and relatively good buildings of the school are facades that masquerade the dire condition of some of the classrooms in the lower classes.

The junior secondary school has just three classes – JSS 1A-1C but in each of these classes made up of about 45 pupils, the front row is dedicated to pupils who have to make do with sitting on the floor.

In one of the JSS1 classes, one pupil sat on her own legs folded under her, another used her school bag as seat on the bare floor while another simply stooped as a teacher laboured to explain a point before the class.

This correspondent moved to another class, Room 9, where no lecture was holding at the time and spoke with one of the pupils sitting on the floor.

When our correspondent asked a pupil how he felt sitting on the floor, the reply of the boy showed the pupils no longer see it as strange to sit on the floor in a pre-university institution.

“Those who don’t have chairs are the ones who sit on the ground. I sit on the ground too. Sometimes, when there is space with someone on a bench, I manage with the person. But when I don’t find it easy writing when three of us are sitting on a broken bench,  most times I sit on the floor,” the boy said.

Asked whether they had been advised to bring chairs from home, he said no.

When this correspondent went undercover to investigate the state of furniture at Fagba Junior Grammar School, Iju Road, Lagos, the situation turned out to be as dire as it is in other schools visited.

This correspondent observed for more than 10 minutes a group of boys armed with stones and hammer as they worked in the front of JSS 1E/F class.

The centre of their interest was a couple of planks that had previously broken off from desks and chairs. The pupils hammered these planks together to make contraptions that could serve as seats for a couple of days.

These young ‘carpenters’ worked on the planks with enthusiasm as attendance of pupils inside the class was being taken by a teacher.

Fagba Junior Grammar School has three blocks. Each of these blocks has about six classrooms each. But each of these classrooms was very congested because of the number of pupils crammed in them.

The situation inside class 1E/1F looked scary. The congested classroom had about 60 pupils cramped into every space available in the room, safe for a small space left for the teacher to stand in the front of the blackboard.

One of the pupils doing carpentry work in the front of the class said the nail-ridden planks they were working on had broken many times, necessitating constant work to put them together so they could sit on them.

When our correspondent asked a group of pupils whether they thought they would do better in their subjects if they had better chairs to sit on, one of them answered, “I think so.”

Saturday PUNCH has not named the pupils spoken with in this report to prevent any attempt to identify them in the school as was the case in Ikeja Grammar School, published last Saturday.

In most of the schools visited, there were signs showing that they were part of the Lagos Eko Project, which was meant to improve education in the 639 public secondary schools in the state.

The website of the project indicated that there are 620,120 pupils in public secondary schools in the state as at April 2013.

The findings about the state of furniture in public schools in the state, have elicited more reactions from parents. Some of them said there was no excuse for the decay in infrastructure in these schools while others took the positive angle of saying the population in the state made it impossible to totally improve the schools.

One of such parents, a man who has a child in a secondary school in Oshodi, Mr. Aliu Ogundijo, said, “What happened to the billions of naira internally generated by Lagos State that we hear about everyday? If this kind of situation still exists in schools, my opinion is that it is hypocritical to undertake multi-billion-dollar projects such as the cable bridge and light rail because education should supersede all these things.”

John Kudere, whose child attends a public secondary school in Ikeja, said there were adequate chairs in the school his son attended but added that the findings showed that a lot of pupils were at a disadvantage in the state’s educational system.

He said, “What this means is that sending your child to a public school because you cannot afford a private school is like condemning such child to a low educational system that may have a negative impact on his life in future.

“Public schools are supposed to be as important to the government as any other issue in the state. They are not supposed to be given a fringe focus by the government.”

Mr. Lloyd Ebenezer, who also spoke with Saturday PUNCH however, opined that the rising population of the state makes it impossible to perfectly manage public schools in the state.

“I am not saying this is an excuse for government not to improve these schools. I believe a lot should be done but I think the high enrolment in schools contribute to the decay in facilities,” he said.

Several calls made to the Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Olayinka Oladunjoye, on Thursday, were not answered, but she later replied a text message seeking to know when the public should expect intervention in the schools.

“You may wish to liaise with the public relations officer of the ministry as I am presently not in. We work with the budget please,” she said.
http://www.punchng.com/news/more-lagos-schools-where-pupils-sit-on-bare-floors-unearthed/

talktimi: This is the height of tyranny. I read the original article whr the school officials said they had sent several requests to the state ministry of education asking for furniture, why should this woman be punished just because some people are incompetent ? The principal refused offers from the pta to handle this same furniture palava just so she wont get into trouble but here it is again, seems you never can please dictators sha.

Thats what to expect when APC gets power, MILITARIAN rule. They criticise other parties and dont want anyone to criticise in a democracy! The other week it was Oshiomole telling a widow to “go and die”.

Too much for "progressive"

Wonders shall never end, the offender wielding the big stick on the defenseless when in fact should be the one on its toes..impunity everwhere..
And APC wants to take power over from the centre where they can not fix a common school at the heart of their own government instead they removed the head of the school for allowing the Nigerians to see their hypocrisy outside..There more rotten schools in lagos than anywhere around south west states..Too much media hype about the achievement of tom boy Fashola is beginning to show up..

T8ksy: [s]But running off in the middle of the night after starting a war that has cost so many innocent lives, is HEROIC?

Smh for ibo logic.[/s]

Femi Fani Kayode how are your naughty daughters? I wouldn't mind one night stand.....

wingman

Lol he's from a lineage of misfits (a) his grandfather died a thief (b) his father is a failure (c) he is a thief , a failure and an old hog who will die a fool
(d) he married 3 wives but his Watery spam could not produce male child

[quote author=5.00GP][s]NA YOUR PAPA OPEN THE DOOR........
ODE, AMUKUNMEKO[/quote][/s]
Must you expose your misfit papa here on public forum?

T8ksy: And why the pho.ck should i do that? Tell you ashawo first lady to go court if she no get shame.

Like serious you need TB Joshua deli....

T8ksy: Lol........I wish............but back then when she was still blossoming ........not now that she has been round the whole

block myriad times. By the time oju-iku finally snuffed it, BianCar was way passed her "used by" date.

This guy really hit FFK aka Ode too hard here

FFK I HAVE TOLD YOU BEFORE THAT YOU CANNOT HIT A GOAL EVEN WITH YOUR HAND AT PENALTY. YOU CANNOT HIT ANYTHING BECAUSE YOU WILL NEED TO BORROW ANOTHER MAN"S ORGAN TO DO SO BECAUSE YIUR OWN IS MALFUNCTIONING AS YOUR 3 WIVES RUN AWAY FROM YOU BECAUSE YOU CANNOT PERFORM. YOU CANNOT HIT ANYTHING BECAUSE YOUR BRAIN HAVE TOO MUCH CRACK COCAINE INSIDE SO YOU CANNOT SEE YOUR TARGET CLEAR.YOU CANNOT HIT ANYTHING OTHERWISE YOU WILL BORN MALE ISSUE BY NOW. AT THE AGE OF 53 YEARS WITH TOO MANY WIVES AND MORE YOUR SPERM HAVE NO MALE CHROMOSOME. FFK YOU ARE BORN TO BE WOMAN.NO REAL MAN CAN BE BEHAVING THE WAY YOU ARE BEHAVING. NO BODY THAT IS SANE WILL BE SEEN IN ANY COURT WITH MADMAN LIKE YOU.IF ONLY TB JOSHUA CAN ACCEPT TO HAVE YOU IN HIS CHURCH FOR DELIVERANCE BUT THE DEMONS THAT ARE LIVING INSIDE YOUR BODY ARE TOO MUCH.

[quote author=5.00GP]AND THIS IGBO PEOPLE THEY USE OUR YORUBA LANGUAGE. TO SING SO THAT THEY CAN GET FAME N MAKE MONEY....
YORUBA LANGUAGE, THE MOST SPOKEN LANGUAGE IN NIGERIA, BENIN REPUBLIC, CUBA, BRAZIL[/quote]who open door for rabies infested dog?
Waiting person no go hear for Nairaland!

T8ksy: [s]Yeye dey smell! Abeg, face the topic jor. [/s]

Bury your miserable face in shame. Ode

T8ksy: Poignantly, in some clime, it's seen as a show of INTESTINAL FORTITUDE!

Nairaland here i present to you the one and only Nigeria self professed NITWIT, all hail king of fools. DUNCE FEMI FANI KAYODE

That's African magic for you
Btw, Yoruba editors are as backward as it sound

Berem how market?

I smell political suicide! If Ngige can not archive it who's Nwoye to dare?
APC has no structure in Anambra state