School Children in Akwa Ibom Sit on Floors, while billions Spent on Govt house jeeps can provide 244,000 Desks
By Ekemini Simon
As 9-year old Mercy James sits with stretched legs on the bare floor of St Paul African Church School, a government primary school in Ibaka, Mbo local government area to write her examination, within 15 minutes, she was struck by muscle strain.
She stood up and spent about five minutes hitting her legs on the ground to recover. The discomfort made her to intermittently change her answer booklet to either left or right in search of comfort. At some point she was forced to squat to write her examination.
Right from her primary one to her current class, primary four, she has never sat on a desk, during classes or examination. The floor of the classroom over the years has assumed the place of her seat and her writing table. Mercy is not alone in this plight.
In the entire school, about 90 percent of pupils have been sitting on the floor for classes and examinations.
In a school estimated to have over 1,000 pupils, only 60 desks were sighted by TheMail Newspaper, 50 of which the Head Teacher, Justina Uko said were donated last year by the House of Assembly Member of the area, Mr. Effiong Johnson.
The village head of this Community, Chief Asuquo Asuquo Etifit says many pupils have fallen sick especially during the rainy season due to the deplorable learning condition of the school.
“It gets worse for our children when it rains. The cold underneath the broken floor coupled with rain blown into classes by the wind makes the experience terrible for our children. This makes them sick on a regular basis”, the Chief said.
This is not the only community where school children sit on exposed floors. The experience is the same at the only public secondary school in another oil-rich local government area, Ibeno.
At Secondary Grammar School, Upenekang, most students sit on bare floors during classes and examinations.
When TheMail visited the school in July 2022, it was observed that due to the high population density of the school, students who sat on the ground to write examinations overflowed from the classroom to the veranda.
The poor learning condition of pupils and students in these oil producing areas is an aberration to the volume of oil revenue they produce for the State.
For instance, Ibeno plays host to four major oil assets; OML 104, 67, 68, and 70 operated by Exxon Mobil while Mbo hosts OML 13/14 stubb creek marginal field operated by Universal Energy. Oriental Energy also operates in Mbo. The oil and gas exploration by these companies at these two local government areas have contributed in no little measure to the multi-billion naira the State gets regularly from its share of 13 per cent derivation.
In the last two years for instance, Akwa Ibom State received into its coffers N182.16bn as 13 per cent derivation.
Nevertheless, the experience of these two schools are just a fraction of the many schools in the State in dire need of seats for pupils and students.
Commendably, the Akwa Ibom State Government in April 2022 provided 100 dual carriage desks to Government Primary School Aka 1 located at the heart of the capital city in Uyo after several pictures of pupils who sit on empty floors flooded the social media.
However, the few interventions after public calls have left many schools still unattended to.
Problem Identified Amidst Questionable Political Will
Successive appropriation law of the State between 2015 and 2021 points to the fact that the state government is aware of the dearth of seats in Akwa Ibom public schools and the need to make available resources that would address the problem.
For example, from 2015 through 2022, the State government through the Ministry of Education, State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) and State Secondary Education Board (SSEB) prioritised in its yearly budget provision of seats across its 1164 primary schools and 251 secondary schools. It budgeted a total of N510.7 million within these eight years. But this has not translated to the desired impact.
A Freedom of Information request to these three offices seeking insight into the amount spent on provision of seats in Akwa Ibom public schools within the period of Governor Udom Emmanuel’s administration was not acceded to.
However, within four years of 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019 which TheMail Newspaper could access audited financial statements of the State, only N15 million is recorded as being spent on seats across all the public schools in the State. This expenditure which was 66.6 percent of the N22.5 million budgeted for 3334 numbers of 3-seater desks was made by SUBEB in 2018.
Billions Spent on Government House Jeeps in four Years will Provide 244,000 Dual Desks in Schools
Analysis of the Akwa Ibom State Accountant Generals Report and Audited Financial Statements for 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019 shows that the government of Akwa Ibom State prioritized spending on Jeeps used in Government House over seats in public schools across the State.
The office of the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) spent a total of N3.66bn for the purchase of 64 jeeps within these four years. These jeeps, which include Land Cruisers, Ford Explorers, Prado Jeeps TXL and Security Jeeps are purchased under the line item “Vehicles for System”.
The amount spent on the jeeps is 25.4 percent of the total N14.38bn (2015- N3.14bn, 2016 – N1.5bn, 2018 -N2bn, 2019- N5.4bn, 2020- N2.34bn) spent in the same office for all categories of “vehicles for system” in five years.
These jeeps are also different from other brands of vehicles purchased by the Akwa Ibom State Judiciary, House of Assembly and Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Akwa Ibom State Government.
Interestingly, the analysis of the N3.66bn spent on the purchase of these 64 jeeps for government house within the four years under review can provide 244,000 dual desks for public schools across Akwa Ibom State thus ameliorate the prevalence of bare floor education in the oil-rich State.
According to the Appropriation Law of Akwa Ibom State, 2021 and 2022, State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) budgeted N7.5 million to provide 500 numbers of dual desks. This implies that by the costing of the Government of Akwa Ibom State, provision of a dual desk will cost N15, 000.
At N15, 000 per desk, 244,000 dual desks can be acquired with N3.66bn. This means that each of the 1415 public schools in Akwa Ibom State can receive at least 172 dual desks.
With 172 dual desks per school, it implies that at least 344 students per school who hitherto had their education on bare floor will now have seats.
Government Reacts
The Acting Chairman, Akwa Ibom State Universal Basic Education Board, Mr. Iniobong Akpan has said that the government of Akwa Ibom State has been providing seats across public schools in the State.
The Chairman however failed to present evidence of the acclaimed spending and schools that have benefited so far from the provision of seats as sought for by TheMail in an FOI request.
While admitting that there are still schools where students sit on empty floors, Akpan attributed the problem to vandalism.
“Anytime the government constructs schools, every classroom is provided with a dual desk. The problem is that most times, vandals go to those schools to destroy the desks”, he said.
He also blamed the dearth of seats in schools to failure of Head Teachers who did not report the situation to the government.
“There are education secretaries in each local government area which Head Teachers and Principals report to. Some Head Teachers will come with photographs showing the condition of their school and as a result, those kinds of schools will get attention. Teachers who have not done that are the reason we have schools with a deficit in seats”, he added.
Akpan called on community effort to help address the dearth of seats in schools insisting that the government will be unable to address the problem alone.
The claims by the SUBEB Chairman that schools still facing the dearth of seats are those who are yet to report their concerns to the State government has been found wanting. The Head Teachers of the schools visited by TheMail Newspaper where pupils and students sit on bare floor told this newspaper that they have written severally to the State Government to lay their complaints yet without result.
Findings also revealed that although there are a few schools where seats provided by government are vandalized, most of the schools without seats have not been given seats by the administration of Governor Udom Emmanuel as evidenced in the highlighted spending within the four years financial statements accessed by TheMail Newspaper.
Meanwhile, an effort to get reaction from the Commissioner for Education, Akwa Ibom State, Mrs. Idongesit Etiebet was unsuccessful. She did not respond to the FOI request to her office, calls, text and WhatsApp messages during the two months period of this investigation.
The Chairman, Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly Committee on Education, Mr. Godwin Ekpo only responded to text message from TheMail requesting to know what his committee is doing to check the prevalence of dearth of seats in public schools in the State.
He said “We are trying to identify such schools first before actions are taken.”
*This Investigation is supported by Policy Alert*