By Rauf Oyewole
84 years old Central Primary School in Alkaleri, Alkaleri local government area of Bauchi State has no perimeter fence and has been taken over by the popular Alkaleri Sunday grain market. Commercial activities pose both health risks and psychological issues on the learners and their teachers.
Apart from the vandalisation of the learning environment, the pupils who do not have a share of the proceeds of the market activities have to breathe in toxic odor and spend hours of their learning periods cleaning up the mess left by traders who defecate and urinate at every corner of the school.
Correspondents' Watch observed that trading activities were going on from the entire football field to classrooms and the entire premises of the school. The situatios has rendered the school administrator helpless and put on a forlorn face every Monday morning but order pupils to clean up the premises before proceeding to learning activities.
The School which has primary and junior secondary school is being used by the traders from over 50 communities around Alkaleri and Kirfi local government areas of the state.
It was observed that anytime it rains on Market day, traders and farmers are being forced to break into the classrooms to keep their grains. This act has left many classrooms without chairs and desks while windows have been vandalised.
Open defecation became rampant in the premises as the limited school toilets which were broken were not sufficient for the traders. Water facilities were also destroyed while pupils’ swing chairs and swing coasters were being misused.
Correspondents' Watch observed that the Principal’s office was thronged, a situation that posed a threat to examination records and sensitive materials. Traders in some cases spend a night in the school premises ahead of the market day and pass a night in a situation where they failed to secure vehicles to convey their goods.
A resident of the area, Usman Ismail urged that the market be relocated to another area. “This school has been here for ages. The government seems to be dragging its foot. The market is an obstruction to the school and the Bauchi-Gombe road. We cannot count the number of people who have been injured and died on this road.
“Every Monday, you see students with their brooms sweeping the whole premises. The place is always too messy for these small children to clean. This is where people defecate and urinate without proper cleaning. As you can see, the place was designed for school and not the market,” he said.
Meanwhile, the newly posted UNICEF’s Chief of Field Office Bauchi, Dr. Nuzhat Rafique, while speaking at a one-day community mobilisation and back to school campaign taken to the emirs at the Palace of the Dr. Rilwanu Suleiman Adamu in Bauchi recently, said that the learning outcome for the children at the basic education level in the country has the worst indicator, especially in the north-east.
According to her, “in Bauchi, the early childhood development index indicated that only 26% of children are on track, the foundational reading skills for 7-14 years stand at 9%, while the foundational numeracy for the same age category stands at 8%.
“Numerous obstacles prevent consistent learning achievement, school attendance, timely enrolment, and completion. Some of these obstacles include inadequate evidence-based policy and planning, limited budget allocation, significant shortages of qualified teachers and classrooms, poor infrastructure, poor teachers' remuneration, cultural norms, health and safety worries, and dependence on children for income and household tasks.
“The situation calls for a concerted effort by the relevant stakeholders to address these challenges,” she advised.
While reacting, the Public Relations Officer of the Bauchi State Universal Basic Education Board, Mohammad Abdullahi, said that the Board is aware and worried about the penetration of the market into the school premises. He said: “We have plans to fence the school to prevent this problem.”
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