Evbuotubu Primary School, Nigeria: A Journalist’s Experience (1 and 2)
What is left of the school compound the children have to use for recreation and urination, etc
Thursday, 27th
September, 2012. 10:00a.m or thereabouts. Abies (not her real name) has
just been asked out of the class. She had been down with illness and
has not been in school for about a week and half now. Her peasant mother
said the nurses at the health centre, (not too far from the school
premises) had diagnosed stubborn malaria. But it looks like there is
more to it than meets the eyes.
Abies
managed to show up in school today but, midway between her classes, she
began to throw up. The “Arithmetic Auntie” (subject teacher) had asked
the 6 year-old girl to go out of the class so as not to vomit inside the
jam-packed classroom, or possibly infect the other pupils.
...your belle dey pain you?
She
had barely reached the corridor when her bosom friend and playmate,
Kate (not her real name) also in primary 2, saw her in an unusual
position and gestured curiously. “… your belle dey pain you?” Kate queried her friend in pidgin English, meaning “…is your belly aching?’’ But Abies was busy battling for her life. She held her stomach a second time in split seconds and resumed her vomiting. “Doe o!” Kate quipped in vernacular, connoting “sorry!” “Your belle dey pain you?” She asked a second time, inquisitively. “No. E dey turn me and I dey feel cold”,
Abies managed to reply at last but instantly resumed the battle for her
health. Just then my camera’s lenses clicked to record the ensuing
drama from my (investigative) hide out.
There is an apparent state of emergency here!
All roads leading to the school overwhelmed by flood and erosion all year round.
The
rains this year have refused to stop and the daily misery,
environmental, and health hazards and pains borne by inhabitants and
indigenes of this large community and their immediate neighbors in Egor
L.G.A. , Edo State, Nigeria, are now a normal ritual
and culture of sorts; and if the predictions by environment and climate
change experts are anything to be taken seriously, next year’s rains
and its resultant flooding, erosion menace and health havocs should be
worse than this year’s experience - just as this year’s rains and its
resultant floods have eclipsed the 2011 flood furies in this part of the
state. Alas! Here at Evbuotubu Community, the worst hit victims are
school children; and unless something urgent and drastic is done now by
all relevant stakeholders, the gradually submerged school buildings may
soon collapse on the helpless children and their teachers. Or, at least,
an imminent epidemic might break out sooner or later. Why? How?
Lectures in progress, under the mercy of mosquitoes and water-borne diseases.: WASH-unfriendly- front of school now a dump siteMinutes earlier, I was heading to the office of the headmistress of the second arm of the school, to book an appointment. The office was in the middle of a block of four classrooms, and walking across the first two classrooms to her office was very revealing. Dutiful teachers were busy teaching and writing on the chalk boards or marking books on their tables while enthusiastic kids- some of whom sat on the muddy wet floor for want of chairs to sit on - listened with rapt attention while others were too busy copying notes to notice a visitor’s presence by the corridor.
School latrine overtaken by weeds and flood water.
As
I approached the door of the school head, pungent smell filled the
atmosphere around me. I looked around the erosion-ravaged premises and
the large pools of water around, looking for any dead animal in the
flood water. Just then I noticed at the extreme end of the building-
about half a pole from the school head’s office- an abandoned school
latrine overtaken by weeds and flood water; (obviously out of use
because of the erosion, the flood may have washed ashore the faeces
inside the abandoned latrine onto the surface).
“Good morning, everybody!” I politely greeted two elderly ladies chatting away in the office. “Please is this the headmistress’ office?”
The fair lady seated at the far end of the room immediately responded
in affirmation and reciprocated my greeting in a friendly and receptive
manner, while her dark complexioned colleague seated by my right hand
just kept staring at me as if I was a tax collector or one of those
“area boys”.…
“I am a journalist… and also a resident of this community. I use to have my child in this school but she has passed out….” I began introducing myself and my mission. “I
have been greatly concerned about the state of things in this school
for a long time now but I decided to come and see what I can do to help
draw the attention of those concerned in government to the plight of
children in this school, even though I know there may have been various
efforts regarding this in the past….”
“Did you say your child is in this school?” the fair lady queried me.
“She used to be in this school but she passed out two years ago and now she is schooling in Asoro Grammar school,” I replied and continued, “I
wanted to see the Headmistress to seek the cooperation of the school
authority to carry out some research and investigation on the way this
yearly flooding is impacting daily on the pupils and their academics,
and to ask a few questions regarding what currently the school has done
or is doing to make the government speed up efforts to keep their
promise….”
While her mate just kept looking at me as though waiting to cross examine me, the fair lady cut in,
“Oh that’s good… you’re welcome. The headmistress just left some
minutes ago to their office in town but she will soon be back. You can
still speak with her (pointing to the dark lady); she’s the vice.”
My God! The same woman, who has refused to give me a welcome look let
alone say anything to me, was the very one I have to speak to! I took
pluck, anyway, and eyeballed her.
“You’re a journalist, what kind of cooperation are you expecting from us?” she asked in an intimidating and suspicious manner.
“Well,
I would like the school authority to permit me to observe the
experiences of the school children under this heavy flooding they learn
in and to take some photographs, ask you people a few questions – like
how is the daily flooding of the school premises affecting the children
and teachers academically and their health; are mosquitoes and other
insects affecting the pupils and teachers in the classes as a result of
the flooding, is the situation affecting the attitude and input of
teachers to work as well as their health? All these will help me in my
report about what is going on here in this school,” I explained.
“Have you been in this community or you just came newly?” the Vice Headmistress queried me again. I was yet to answer when she dropped a bombshell, “you
see that I have been very reluctant to talk all this while, because
it’s like you’re a stranger here. You see, I’m somebody that doesn’t
like wasting my time in what will never work.” At this point I became confused and curious. Is she implying I’m on a futile mission?
“Madam, how do you mean?” I politely asked.
Then she opened up: “If
you are old in this community you will know that the main problem of
this school is the community and their leaders. In all my 33 years as a
teacher I have been transferred to several communities. I have never
seen a community that hates to develop. Here you have a problem that has
deteriorated for several years, and yet you couldn’t do anything about
it as a community, instead you are adding to the problems. All they are
good and fast at is recklessly selling lands without considering the
impacts on the land. They keep selling off lands indiscriminately….”
She continued, “Anywhere
in the world whenever you want to sell community lands, you first of
all consider three basic things: you consider school, market and
hospital – these basic essential needs of the people. But here, the
community leaders and the people don’t care about all of these provided
they get money. And you were asking me, you want to find out if
mosquitoes bite pupils and if teachers are comfortable working under
this condition. I think such questions should not arise at all. From my
little knowledge of elementary science, we were taught the various
reproduction stages of mosquitoes breeding and multiplying and we were
taught that pools of standing water is the breeding ground for
mosquitoes. How much more this river and lake of erosion that has taken
over the entire school compound for several years!”
“So,
I’m surprised that such a question is coming from an enlightened person
like you, a journalist for that matter. You also talked about how it is
affecting teachers … you can see me now, I’m sitting here with hands
folded. Because I’m feeling cold and you don’t have to be told that a
major part of the reason is because the whole premises are filled with
water. What do you expect? Anyway, we are willing to give you the
cooperation you asked for but the headmistress, as you have been told,
is not around now. Except you wait or come back another time.”
When will help Come?
The
deputy school head may be right - as I later got to discover. The
flooding situation at the Evbuotubu Primary School has entered its 12th
year, but there is nothing to show that help is in sight for these
children. Year after year they learn under mosquito-infested
environment. Their entire school premises have been overtaken by flood
and bushes. The school buildings are gradually submerged in flood water.
More
embarrassing is the fact that without a single rebuke from any teacher
or school head, these children daily urinate freely on the flood water
and everywhere around the few plain spots of land that show up on the
school compound once the flood water wanes a little; and they, in turn
swim in the infected water, eat food and snacks that fell on the
infected ground, and inhale all the stench and putrid odors emanating from the accumulated urines (and escreta) all around the smelly environment.
Lectures in progress, under the mercy of mosquitoes and water-borne diseases.
They
have no access to drinking water, no functional latrine and no playing
field for recreation. And because children MUST play, they have turned
private properties in adjoining roads and people’s compounds around the
community into their playing fields, and play with gadgets without any
checks from the school
authorities. Obviously out of the view and control of the school
authorities, many of these pupils get injured in the process. They are
badly-influenced and sometimes even bullied or abused with much impunity by some bad elements in the community.
The
negative impact of the situation on the health, psychology, and self
esteem of these children at Evbuotubu primary school in Egor LGA, and indeed the overall academic output and effectiveness of both teachers and pupils are undermined by the recurrent cases of pupils’ absentees, truancy, and illnesses like malaria and other water-related diseases such as that which Abies
and many other children in the school daily have to contend with. Alas!
Who really cares? And how am I sure I’m not already embarking on yet
another “fruitless” exercise, as the deputy school head has predicted?
………………………………………………………………………
On
Friday, October 11, 2012, I finally met with the Head Mistress of
Evbuotubu Primary School. A cheerful, dark complexioned elderly woman of
average height agreed she had been informed that a journalist visited
the school and was eager to talk with her.
Without
much protocol she gave me a ‘go- ahead’ order to carry out my media
plan as, according to her, the school badly needed as much publicity as
possible to draw fruitful attention to the plight of her pupils and
staff.
Just then, almost without expecting it, she was on the hot seat in an unstructured press interview from me.
Q: Well done, madam. What is your name ma?
A: School Head: My names are Ogbomo Roselyn Uyi.
Q: You’re the headmistress here?
A: I’m the headmistress of Evbuotubu Primary School, Evbuotubu.
Q: Your
pupils have complained that mosquitoes disturb them; that they don’t
have anywhere to play; that they have no toilet, and they don’t have
access to water for drinking. What do you have to say to all these,
madam?
A: I
don’t have much to say. What they have said, they are all true. We are
appealing to the comrade Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, to please come to
our aid here.
Q: What is the community doing or what has the community done to help you people here?
A: The
community, as I may say, they have really tried their best to make sure
that this flood is removed from here…So, a special appeal now, from the
head teacher, the staff and the pupils, for the comrade Governor to
please assist us. We know the work load on him is too much but he should
please address our own.
Q: We hear that thieves break into your offices to steal things. Is that true?
A: O
yes. They seize the opportunity of this flood to enter the school
premises to do whatever they like. Because the school is lonely, there
is no entrance; it’s not fenced and you cannot move round the way you
actually want to move round. That is why all the people they come in
when they like and go out when they like.
Q: So far, has anything been removed from your office by the thieves?
A: Ehn…it’s only when the water entered the office it destroyed documents.
Q: Now
your children have complained they don’t have place to play. That’s why
they roam the streets and spoil people’s belongings here?
A: Yes…yes…no playing ground, and there’s no room for sports.
Q: Is that why they always fill all the streets in this vicinity and play in people’s compounds?
WILD RECREATION-pupils liter the streets daily during break.A: As you know, children are supposed to exercise themselves round, especially when they are on break. So, there is nothing you can do to stop them from playing; they need it!
Q: Some
of them said that they do urinate anywhere in the compound if they are
pressed and that they go to nearby bushes to excrete openly when they
need to obey the call of nature. Will that not endanger their health and
their lives?
A: Ennn…there
is no other thing they can do because once they are pressed they have
to ease themselves. So they do it anywhere they like.
Q: And because there are no places here, you people don’t know what to do again other than to just leave them…?
A: Yes. There is no place.
Q: I
hear that normally you people ought to be overseeing the children, to
know their movements and make sure that nobody gets wounded or goes
anywhere…but because of this situation you are not able to monitor the
pupils again and they move around wherever they please and you are not
aware of where your children go to.
A: We try our best to do what we can. Sometimes we run after them, we guide them to make sure they’re in.
Q: But so far there has not been any case of maybe… casualty?
A: No…nothing like that.
Q: Is it true that when the rain is too much here you send your children to run home?
A: No. We don’t send them to run home, we keep them in the classes. When the rain subsides we ask them to go.
Q: That could be dangerous! What if these flood-ridden buildings collapse one day under the rain?
A: We don’t pray for that.
Okay! Thank you very much, madam.
Need for Interventions in School W.A.S.H Education and Awareness Creation:
Flooding
apart, environmental awareness, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)
education and culture this reporter observed at Evbuotubu Primary School
is grossly low -a microcosm of the Nigerian rural and sub-urban
situation. Prior to speaking
with the school head, I had taken a random tour of various classrooms in
the school and observed there was no trace of any sanitation facility
inside or outside the classrooms to help children imbibe sanitation
culture. In a school prone to environmental/ health emergencies due to
the perennial flooding, one would expect that the school authorities
would be more concerned and alert to put certain measures in place to
reduce the risk factors that may cause the pupils to easily contract
air-borne and water-borne diseases from the flooded school environment.
Agreed,
it may be the Comrade Governor’s duty to provide the huge financial
resources to take care of the over- a- decade flooding of Evbuotubu
Primary School, but is it also the Comrade Governor’s duty to teach
school children the virtue of hand-washing, appropriate disposal of
wastes around the school premises and the need to stop open urination at
every spot on the school premises? The flood may be responsible for the
lack of a functional school latrine, but the flood is definitely not
responsible for the non-provision of waste paper baskets and wash hand
basins in all the classrooms to inculcate cleanliness culture in the
children even if their school is gradually submerged in flood.
Also,
some members of the community may be blamed for dumping the various
fetish items of religious sacrifices I was shown all around the school
premises (which scares the children and results in pungent smells in
addition to the smelly flood water), but who is to really blame for
turning the front of the school -the only dry spot in the school- into a
dump site where children also go to urinate, defecate and dispose of
wastes? A huge waste-container, placed at a strategic dry spot in the
school compound, should have taken care of this avoidable indifference
to environmental sanitation for schoolchildren in an apparent emergency
situation like this at Evbuotubu Primary School.
Some
of the children I interviewed told me they have no access to drinking
water. If the school authorities are well educated about the health
implication of this, and the child’s human rights dimensions to it, they
should improvise a means of making water available in small buckets and
jerry cans in each class for drinking and hand washing. This is an
integral part of the school system which I once experienced in my
primary school days in a community primary school. All over the country
today, these important WASH awareness and school environmental
sanitation measures/practices have been jettisoned by many, especially
in rural areas.
By FRANCIS UMENDU ODUPUTE
Francis Umendu Odupute 2012 World Water Week award winner in the cartoon/photo category: is
an artist, a writer and a journalist with The Nigerian Observer
Newspapersin Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria, where he heads the
Arts/cartoon section and doubles as the Arts/Culture Editor of the
Newspaper. Photograph courtesy of Francis Odupute
