The Benue State government has described some schools in the state as death traps, saying over 2000 public and private schools may be closed and demolished this holiday.
The Director-General, Benue State Education Quality Assurance, (BEQA) Dr. Terna Francis, while speaking at a meeting with school proprietors at BEQA headquarters in Makurdi, yesterday (Tuesday, August 13), said it has become necessary to close and demolish substandard school structures in the State as most of them have failed to meet specified building standards and quality control and are standing as death traps.
He, however, assured that the state government is taking proactive steps to avoid school collapse in the State especially against the backdrop of the recent incident in Plateau State.
“Recently, a school building collapsed in Plateau and killed many of our children; teachers were also trapped and that was because the building did not stand integrity test,” he agonized.
“So, the first step is to sensitize stakeholders on the need to ensure that they adhere strictly to laid-down standards in building.
“But those of you who don’t have structures that would stand integrity tests by the Urban Development Board, you would have to close down.”
The DG lamented that many schools in the state are unapproved and are just existing for profiteering, preventing those who have invested their resources to provide standard structures to provide education from having pupils or students.
“The GM Urban development and I have gone round and he has shown me those schools that are just death traps and disasters waiting and we are going to act fast so that it does not happen and we would start crying,” he stressed.
“As it is now, we have identified 2,416 schools that do not have the approval of the Benue State government to operate and so far we have cleared only 150 out of over 6000 schools in Benue and they have been given certificates of consent.
“We are calling on others to come do the right thing. We are also calling on parents to remove their children from such schools before resumption of schools in September and move to schools that are quality assured.
“We have published their names on our website and shared with the National Association of Proprietors of Schools, (NAPS). Many schools got approval from the back door. There are some structures that are looking like poultry farms. In fact, we want to launch a probe into how they got approvals to operate with such structures?
Francis, however, promised that “we are not going to demolish immediately; we want to give them time so that at the end of the day, we do not lose any life.”
He has asked them to present their building plans from now to the end of September.
The General Manager, Benue State Urban Development Board, Town Planner Ternongo Mede, said enough time has been given to the owners of illegal schools and he had planned to commence demolition but the meeting was held to sensitize them and give reasons why such structures should be removed.
He said, “I took a tour to some schools in the North Bank and it may interest you to know that there is a school that has already cracked and any moment from now it may collapse.
After inspection two days later, there was a collapse in Jos and that made me sleepless all through the night because I know what we need to do that we have not gone out to demolish.
But with this, most of the schools are going down. Certainly, they will go down.”
Appreciating the Benue State government for the meeting, Chairman of National Association of Proprietors of Schools in the state, (NAPS) Mr Sunday Ojo, appealed to the government for more time to enable the proprietors to meet all the requirements, noting that it would take some time for NAPS members to achieve the desired quality.
He said: “On the issue of standard, we agree with the government that it must be stepped up and we are going to talk to our members to run their schools based on established rules as enshrined in our national curriculum.”
He also called on the BEQA to look into their complaints of multiple taxation including annual tuition, registration of business premises collected by the Ministry of Commerce/Trade and tenement rate saying all these amount to over N500,000Â yearly.
In his own remarks, the Director of Catholic Education Services, Makurdi Diocese, Rev Fr Peter Apagher, while appreciating the DG for capturing the mission and vision of Catholic schools across the nation, said it is the desire of the schools to assist the government in ensuring quality education in the state.
He applauded the state government for waking up to their responsibilities to better the education sector in the state, pledging to cooperate to ensure quality.
Apagher said: “As a Catholic educator, ours is not profit-oriented. We will come back for dialogue; it will be good to address us on our mode of operation. Quality is all we should imbibe to ensure the standard we all yearn for.”
He urged the government to allow a gradual process to enable them key into all that has been approved, addingthat most of the proprietors would need time to enable them develop their permanent sites and move.
Head of Education Unit, Federation of Muslim Women’ Association of Nigeria, (FOMWAN), Hajia Zainab Adamu Usman expressed joy that the Governor, Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia, is bringing back the lost glory to the school system in Benue State.
