By Adedotun Ajayi

In the early 80’s and 90’s, government owened schools were treated with respect and dignity, public schools were the schools of choice. They had good classrooms with good chairs, desks and well trained teachers and everybody’s child was welcomed without segregation. Back then, even schools that had no perimeter fencing had boundaries that couldn’t be crossed. There were security men stationed at each school, especially secondary schools. In some cases, you would have two security men in one school, manning the two gates, because then most schools had two main gates.

However, over the years, this system has been eroded and public schools are left to the mercy of miscreants once it is after school hours.

The rate at which miscreants vandalize public schools especially in Akure metropolis has been described as unacceptable.

It is a known fact that hoodlums take over the schools’ premises immediately activities are over, when teachers and pupils have gone for the day. They destroy ceilings, remove electrical fittings and other objects that could be removed. Sometimes, they excrete in the classrooms thereby making it unconducive to learning the next day.

An on-the-spot assessment recently conducted by our reporter round some primary schools in the Akure metropolis revealed that, the current state of infrastructure in some of these schools is not as it should be.

Schools visited included; L.A primary School, Awule, Akure, St Brendan’s primary school, Akure, Sacred Heart primary school, Akure, Ebenezer African Church Primary School, Amudipe, Akure.

Community Primary School, Iyange, Oke Ogba, Akure.

The visits indicated that all is not presently well with the schools’ structures where learning is being dished out in many public primary schools in the state, Most of the walls of the buildings have cracks on them and are on the verge of collapse.

In some of the classrooms, the concrete floors have given way to embarrassing ‘holes’ begging to be filled.

Likewise, the roofing sheets, asbestos, windows and furniture in the school buildings have been vandalised.

Board members Ondo State Universal Basic Education board, SUBEB, Mr. Saka Yusuf Ogunleye and Princess Ademulegun Brown declared this when they monitored the resumption of pupils for the new academic session.

Ogunleye lamented the serious damage done to many primary schools which the present administration of Akeredolu has strived to renovate for the purpose of raising standard of education in the state.

He described the ugly trend as an act of sabotage against underage pupils, pointing accusing fingers at scavengers who roam the streets to collect iron wastes.

Ogunleye, therefore, appealed to Deji of Akure, Indigenes in diaspora, community leaders, PTA and all well meaning residents to rise to stem the ugly incident and save the education of the children.

He also called on the police and other security agents to promptly wade in to forestall further damage to the schools.

Recall early this year when the State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, reiterated that education remained one of the top priorities of his administration, adding that he will not relent in ensuring that the sector is given the best.

He said since the inception of his administration, no fewer than 600 schools had been renovated to enhance the standard of learning of pupils in the Sunshine State.

Mrs F.O Olowojola, Head Mistress of St Brendan’s Primary school said in recent times, the school premises serves as a haven for hoodlums who do not only come to pass the night but also vandalize the school’s property.

“There is a tipper garage behind the school,  hoodlums have mixed with them, thereby constituting nuisance in the neighborhood. We have tried to get security personnels but it’s not something we can do on our own, we have called the PTA chairman and he’s working on it already”

 She disclosed that the school had a night guard before, but these hoodlums almost killed him because he had no weapon to defend himself. She believes if the school armed the night guard with a rifle and he kills one of the hoodlums, there might be a reprisal attack.

“We just want to urge the people in the neighborhood to please work with us in securing the environment together because these hoodlums cut our iron sheets on the roof almost every time, we believe somebody might have seen them in the act but decided to keep quite because the government is really trying, it is totally wrong for anybody to witness a crime and not report it.  Just recently, we caught one of them and handled him over to the authorities,” she added.

Reacting to this, Mrs Oludele EB, Head Mistress, Sacred Heart Primary School said vandalism in the school premises are not done by the students but hoodlums that come from outside the school premises.

“Immediately it came to our attention that the people responsible for this evil doings are hoodlums in the neighborhood and not the students, we wrote to the government and so far we have received response and it would be worked on. We have also involved the Sacred Heart Cathedral Church, and they promised to give us two security personnel,” she said.

A cross section of residents who spoke with The Hope lamented that their children’s schools have severally been vandalised, thereby exposing their wards to danger.

Mr Oni Peters said: ”The last time I visited my son’s school, I noticed that there were no windows, when I questioned the management, they said hoodlums have vandalised the windows, the roof sheets and carted away with some other valuable items not minding the effort put in place by the government, parents and teachers. I just had to withdraw my son and enroll him in a private school,” he added

Another parent, Bukola Oyebanji said when it comes to education, the present administration don’t take it with levity. She further said that preventing vandalism in public schools should be a joint task between the school management, the parents and the environment.

“The government have done their part by providing facilities and it is the duty of the parent-teacher association (PTA) to maintain them and prevent them from damage. The PTA should gather resources and station guards in the school premises, anybody caught, stealing or vandalizing school’s property should be handed over to the right authorities,” she added

Ayodeji Ayanleye, a Psychologist said preventing school vandalism is a complex problem because vandalism results from a number of different causes.

“One must take a multifaceted approach in order to prevent property damage from different groups. In most cases, it is the environment that damage property, and this problem can often be dealt with by promoting a strong connection with the environment. When you check the environment where these schools are situated, they are often the poor masses, they are people who feel financially deprived, so immediately they get hold of public property, they steal and destroy. This set of people needs orientation, they need to see the importance in education, if these measures are not taken, things won’t change,” he reacted.