Posted by By Francis Awowole-Browne, Abuja on
The spate of demolitions in Abuja has produced a new problem: School kids that should be in classes are not there.
The spate of demolitions in Abuja has produced a new problem: School kids that should be in classes are not there.
During the last registration exercise in the city, Daily Sun investigations reveal that there was a noticeable drop in the pupils' enrollment in schools.
Indeed, as observed by the education authorities in the Federal Capital, an estimated 13,000 pupils could not make it to either primary schools or resume classes in the secondary schools when the new session opened. They are feared to have been displaced along with their parents by the demolition exercises across the length and breadth of Abuja which swept off their residential houses, shops and make shift counters.
Residents of Abuja were taken aback when in 2003 on assumption of office as minister, Mallam el-Rufai announced his plan to pull down structures considered illegal. According to him, these structures have created distortions to the master plan of the FCT and the need to sanitise the entire process. In effect, the minister said that the city has been defaced with unplanned structures which could not be allowed to remain if the capital city is to maintain its position as a planned model city in the country where things are in order.
Determined to drive home his point, the minister through the appropriate organ of the FCT moved in bulldozers and embarked on leveling of structures mainly in residential areas. Places harbouring thousands of people like Karmo, Chika, Dantata Village and parts of Zones 2 and 5 as well as Karu have since fallen with many residents rendered homeless. Though there were notices to the effect that the buildings would be demolished, however, majority of the affected residents who are mostly the middle class were caught unaware as they were away to their workplaces when the demolition squad came calling. Several others had their property trapped in the rubbles. It will suffice to note that mosques and churches were not spared in the demolitions which have sent many out of Abuja unexpectedly
Also agonising to the residents was the demolition of corner shops from where thousands eke out their living.
Drop in school enrolment
As schools resumed after the demolition exercises, many classes in the schools especially in the outskirts of the city were found to have shrunk with many of the pupils unable to resume with their mates. It was learnt that parents whose houses have been pulled down in Karmo and Chika have to relocate to neighboring towns like Suleja in Niger State, Mararaba in Nasarawa State and other areas and had to withdraw their wards from schools in the main city and bring them closer to their new places of abode. Some other parents who found it hard to leave Abuja outright were said to have relocated only their children out of Abuja to not too far away places like Lokoja in Kogi State, Kaduna, and Nasarawa while they continue to work in the FCT. Mostly affected as we gathered are the primary school pupils whose parents found it convenient to transfer them to other schools.
More than 10 primary schools were said to be awaiting demolition along Airport road, while the residents of the surrounding communities have already fled to other places as their houses have either been demolished or awaiting demolition as in densely populated settlements like, Aleita, Kushingoro, and Piwoi where houses had been marked for demolition long ago.
A primary school headmaster in a school at Federal Housing Authority Estate at Lugbe along the airport road who pleaded anonymity confirmed to Daily Sun that the spate of demolition has had a devastating effect on schools admissions in some of the schools. 'There was a time we counted and we discovered that a class was almost empty", he lamented.
This much was confirmed by the Chairman of the board of FCT Universal Basic Education (UBE) Alhaji Husain Pai, while welcoming the Secretary of Education, Ms Bolanle Onagoruwa who paid a familiarisation visit to the board. He had lamented that a population of children of school age in the region of the quoted figure has been displaced alongside their parents who have relocated to neighbouring states and towns in the outskirt of the city.
In another breadth, the UBE boss spoke of consequential overcrowding of some other schools within the city saying it was discovered that internally displaced families who could not leave the city entirely have relocated to other areas with their wards thereby swelling the pupils population in the available schools.
Contacted, the Special Assistant to the minister on Information and Strategy, Hajiya Amina Salihu would not agree that the demolition exercises accounted for any drop in school enrolment in the FCT. She said on the contrary, the administration is still grappling with how to provide more classroom for the pupil population which she said is growing in geometric proportion.
Arguing that it is normal for people for one reason or the other to leave the capital city, she says it is also true that people are trooping into the FCT on daily basis, 'so the transition is vice versa, this has effect on school enrolments" she maintained.
Meanwhile, the Secretary of Education, Ms Onagoruwa who has just been moved to education from social development explained that every care would be taken to tackle problems besetting education in the FCT. She stated further that the familiarisation visit she embarked upon would make her have first hand information on the problems in the educational sector.
In a statement issued by her Public Relations Officer, Zakari Aliyu, the education secretary promised to give her best towards the advancement of education by providing all necessary infrastructure to ensure that all children of school age are enrolled.