12 years free and compulsory education to pupils in Kaduna; a myth or reality as girls prefers street hawking/early marriage due...
12 years free and compulsory education to pupils in Kaduna; a myth or reality as girls prefers street hawking/early marriage due to poor school condition in Mashigi community.
The policy (12 years free and compulsory education) guarantees every child access to education from primary one up to the completion of senior secondary school. But it seems like all this efforts has not been put or taken place in Mashigi community Igabi local government.
Mal. Daud Muhammad is disheartened and lamented that it is better for our girls to get a husband or engaged in street hawking/roadside selling than to continue with this dilapidated school.
Safya Suleiman a 9 year old girl who lamented on how her school days turned to roadside selling. ‘’we don’t have teachers, we are afraid to be in the school during rain and winter, the buildings can’t protect us from rain, sun or winter’’ she said.
The school condition LEA MASHIGI
LEA Mashigi, according to our findings has 9 teachers whom lived far away from the school. According to one of the teachers who speak on condition of anonymity ‘’on daily basis we spend not less than N1200 for transport’’. The teacher/pupils ratio stood at 1:60 which contradicts UNICEF and Nigeria policy on education. The classrooms cannot resist any weather condition, whenever a thick cloud forms, the school has to close because the two blocks of four classrooms cannot protect or accommodate both the teachers and the students from rain.
TOILETS AND WATER SANITATION IN THE SCHOOL
Open defecation remains order of the day due to poor condition of the toilets. More so, the school has one borehole and a well that aren’t functioning for over five years. The pupils have to rush home to drink during school hours.
Ensuring access to Water Sanitation and Hygiene WASH in schools is a key target within the UN SDG’s (goal 6). According to a survey carried by Connected Development (CODE) ‘609 schools in Kaduna have no toilet, water facilities’. The report says 249 primary school pupils share one toilet and they are below standard. The question her is ‘’how many children are dying or contacting diseases due to lack of WASH in schools?’’
Speaking with radio Nigeria Kaduna the youth leader in the community comrade Dauda Ismail, said lack of school infrastructure continue to hinder many children especially girls from attending school. The fewer that managed to complete their primary school cannot further their education due to absent of secondary school in our community. There are only nine teachers in the school and are not coming regularly, due to far distance and poor salary they always complain. The school has to be closed till after the raining season due to poor roofing. ‘’This is happening in a democratically elected government. We have polling units and we are exercising our rights to vote but politicians abandon us when they win elections’’. He said.
The village head of Mashigi Malam Nasiru Ibrahim confirmed the sorry state of the school. ‘’The school has no toilets facilities and pupils and teachers have resorted to use of nearby bushes to ease off, we travel far to access medical attention’’ he said. The government should to our recue by addressing the school conditions, establishment of secondary school, water facilities and toilets, provision of enough/trained teachers as well as establishment of primary healthcare Centre in our community.
Kaduna state intends to spend 26% (N206.6bn) of its 2025 budget to education. Health is important in education therefore ensuring proper sanitation facilities including clean toilets and drinking water are vital for preventing disease spread and maintaining good hygiene which directly impacts to student’s ability to focus and attend school regularly. The classrooms should be standard, well equip and weather resists.
Gender consideration: girls, during menstruation are particularly affected by inadequate sanitation facilities leading to school dropout. Many schools in Kaduna state lack WASH facilities impacting to millions of children’s access to quality education. The Adolescent Girls Initiative for learning and Empowerment (AGILE) in Kaduna should consider building blog of classrooms in LEA Mashigi due to their poor conditions and large number of girls affected. We seek partnership with education champions like the Impact House, System Strategy And Policy Lab (SPLL) as well as the Hope For Community and Children to address these and many issues to improve our education standard in Kaduna state and Nigeria at large.
Cov/ Abubakar Tukur Batagarawa
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