Planks, cement blocks serve as desks and chairs

By ABISOLA LEMON

On a Monday morning, in Warakni village in Michika Local Government area of Adamawa State, a crowd of people were hurrying to the Monday market in Garta as schoolchildren briskly made their way to school.

Among them was seven-year-old Kwada, who declared to anyone who cared to listen. “I want to be a doctor so that I can take care of sick people in Warakni.”

His friend, Dlama, hoped to be a soldier “so that I can be wearing uniform and people will respect me.”

Whatever joy you may have felt about the zeal for education on the part of these youngsters, however, would quickly turn to dismay at the first glimpse of their school.

It is sad to see Kwada and other pupils making their way to receive lessons under different trees, which served as their classrooms. Wooden planks supported by cement blocks served as their desks and chairs, surrounded by the ruins of what were once functional classrooms.  Overall, it was a dismal picture of a grossly unfit learning environment in the 21st century. No thanks to past Boko Haram onslaught. Warakni is one of the many villages within that axis of the state  just restarting their lives after the dreaded Islamic insurgents swept through  Adamawa State like a hurricane and shutdown all forms of socio-economic life.

Michika Local Government was closed down on September 7, 2014 when it was captured by the insurgents and declared Boko Haram territory, with its inhabitants dispersed in different directions. Not until January 29, 2016, when the military regained control and reopened the communities did the inhabitants start returning to their homes. Since their return early in 2016, they had tried to rebuild and rescue the various aspects of their community life from decay and stagnation. What Saturday Sun saw of the local school was the progress made in the past 12 months.

A member of the community told Saturday Sun  that the zeal for education in the northeast ern state was not any different from what obtained in the southwest of the country. “Going to school here is accorded high social value. Our schools have historically enjoyed high enrolment,” he said.

A teacher corroborated him. He said that the children were taught even under such substandard and enervating condition was to encourage pupils to come to school and instill in them the value of education. He admitted that the school environment was not appealing.  The children were ready to learn, he asserted, but government’s response had not been encouraging.

“Look at the classes over there,” he said, pointing at the newly roofed classrooms, “they were renovated by the school PTA. That is where we have Primaries 4, 5 and 6. They are the closest things to a school environment.”

Mr. David Tizhe, a parent who brought his children to the school, also bemoaned the lack of government’s assistance. “We are at a crossroad in this village. If our community was not ravaged by the Boko Haram insurgency, we would have done something tangible in this school,” he said.

Ironically, Warakni Primary School is located less than three kilometers from Michika town, headquarters of the local government, and therefore not far out of the view of government. “For a village starting life all over, we need helping hands in many respects, particularly with our education, if not for anything, but for the reason that Warakni School is a symbolic triumph over Boko Haram whose priority among other things is to stamp out western education”, Tizhe stated.