Even as banners with inscriptions such as “Education for all is a responsibility of all” and “Every child has a right to basic Education stands boldy at the entrance of the Federal Capital Territory Universal Education Board (FCT-UBEB), it’s management has said they were not aware that there is no secondary school in Passo community located in Paiko ward of Gwagwalada area council.
A Director at UBEB Alhassan Sule, stated this in Abuja at the weekend, while receiving some members of the community who followed media based NGO PAGED Initiative to an advocacy visit on the board.
PAGED Initiative had shot a video documentary that captured the suffering of young boys and girls trecking far distance from Passo to Hajj Camp in Gwagwalada, and other far distance schools they walk to daily due to the absence of a secondary school in the community.
Sule blamed the absence of a secondary school in the community on negligence on the part of LEA, saying it was their responsibility to notify the board of the need for a school in the area.
He said, “I am surprised that Passo do not have a junior secondary to be candid, because it is the responsibility of the LEA to write to the board that Passo community have enough enrollment with catchment schools that can actually feed the junior secondary schools.
“If there is any need of a secondary school in any community it has to come from the LEA because they are closer to the grassroot. Also, the community can write and approach the board that there will be need for a junior secondary school if the distance to the nearest secondary school is too far.
“We will call the LEA secretary to write officially just in a similar case when a community wrote to the board and we went there to inspect the facilities and then we wrote a report that there is available land and teachers. Ours was just to establish a secondary school there,’ he said.
The Director further appealed to the NGO to further through their advocacies encourage girl child education, saying when most girls reach the age of thirteen or fourteen their parents withdraw them from school for early marriage and hawking.
“Try to talk to the community and make them understand that you have already spoken to the board and they will do everything to ensure that access to education is given to them but they will have to cooperate to make this happen and ensure that their wards are taken to school not withdraw of children from school for hawking and early marriages,” he said.
“This is an emergency because of the distance from Passo to Hajj camp which is more than 5kilometers because of the risk of trekking, travelling we see it as an emergency. In cases like this we ask for intervention to see that the issue is addressed,” he assured.
In his remarks, the Head, Junior Secondary School Bashir Abubakar, assured that a secondary school will be built for the community if land, catchment schools that will feed the school is available, disclosing that the Executive chairman recently approved 11 secondary schools to be built.
Responding, the Executive Director of the NGO Ummi Bukar, restated the need for UBEC to set up a secondary school in the community, stressing that the children are too young to treck long distances to get an education, an opportunity children in other areas enjoy.
“These children are too young to treck long distances to school, by the time they walk to school they are already tired and cannot learn anything. By the time they come back home they can’t read or do assignment and the whole process of getting out of poverty is not achieved because they will be lagging behind as they were not given the opportunity,” she stressed.
One of the community members, a mother of six children Miriam Ibrahim, narrated how her son was hit by a vehicle while trecking to school from Passo to Hajj Camp.
“The day my child had the accident I was not around, I just heard that my child had an accident and I rushed to the place, if you had seen him then….I was so confused I even fell down,till now he still feels the pain at his rib, we had to snap him with blood stain allover.
“The girl he had the accident with died immediately so I was not happy but the incident did not discourage him from going to school as he continues to attend school up until now according to him he cannot abandon his education but said I should keep praying for them and that is what I have been doing, he is now in j.s.s3 the accident happened when he was in j.ss1.
“I have three other children who still attend the same school. When I have money for transport I give them in the morning so that they will not go late but when they are coming back in the afternoon,they will have to trek home under the hot sun from junior secondary School Hajj camp. I want my childrens life to be better than mine because I was not opportuned to go to school, I want them to be educated and prosper in life,” she stressed.
