A traditional ruler, Onise of Odo Oro-Ekiti in Ikole Local Government Area of Ekiti State, Oba Babatunde Jemilehin, Aladesodedero I, has appealed to the state government to reconstruct the dilapidated classrooms at St Thomas’ Catholic Primary School in the community.
This was as the coordinator of the school’s Old Students Association of the school, Prince Segun Okunoye, said there is need for government and other critical stakeholders to save it from total neglect in the interest of its young pupils.
They both spoke in Odo Oro-Ekiti during the handing over of a newly-renovated block of three classrooms by the old students to the school management.
Oba Jemilehin lamented the unpleasant experience of the pupils under the deplorable classrooms, especially during the raining season.
The traditional ruler said solid and conducive infrastructures remain one of the measures in the standard of education in any society.
He commended the old students for the timely gesture of renovating the block of classrooms as the pupils resume for the new academic session.
The traditional ruler restated the need for the state government to act fast in giving the pupils a befitting and conducive learning environment.
“The buildings in this primary school have been in very terrible dilapidated forms for a long while.
“That has been source of concern to not only the school management, but equally to me as the traditional ruler of the town and the generality of the Odo-Oro Ekiti indigenes.
“The harrowing experiences the pupils go through to study in such a deplorable condition and the effects on their psychology as they visit others schools with good structures cannot be over-emphasised.
“Their teachers too are not left out in the trauma of teaching pupils drenched whenever it rains.
“It is in the spirit of this understanding that I am making this passionate appeal to the government to come to the aid of our primary schools in Odo Oro Ekiti,” the traditional ruler said.
The coordinator of the old students’ association, Okunoye, said he and his colleagues were moved by the pictures and videos of pupils learning under the deplorable structures.
He said this informed their decision to come together and pull resources together to renovate the block of three classrooms.
Okunoye noted that there was need for the people to collaborate with the government in improving the standard of education especially the basic.
He added that government should also be deliberate in attending to the other blocks of classrooms in the school in order to motivate the pupils to learn.
“With the limited resources available to us, we set to work and the renovation of the building we are handling over today was completed in August this year, preparatory to the resumption of academic activities for the new session.
“We, however, regret to say that, of the four buildings that need immediate attention, we could only handle one, while the remaining three are in their dilapidated shapes as we can all see.
“It is therefore on that note that we want to call on the state government, the State Universal Primary Education Board and other governmental agencies that are stakeholders in the administration of primary school education to, urgently, come and assist in renovating the remaining buildings in this school,” Okunoye said.
The Head Teacher of the school, Chief Idowu Adeyemi, commended the old students for the gesture. She said it would go a long in ameliorating the suffering of the pupils and staff.
The primary school, which was established in 1954, has 240 pupils.
