A group of Ikorodu youths, under the #NotTooYoungToRunCampaign have launched a SaveIkoroduPoorEducationProject Campaign on social media across the state. The launch of the campaign, according to Samson O. Bisiriyu, founder of the group was to salvage the Ikorodu division education from total collapse.
Recall that Ikorodu Oga Radio in a recent report shared some pictures of the dilapidated state of a school in the division, a sight said to be common with many public schools across the entire Ikorodu division.
In a report of its fact-finding visit to assess the level of facilities in public schools within the division, the group reports as follows;
‘We Ikorodu Division Not Too Young To Run Platform, as concerned citizens of Ikorodu division took time to visit some schools to confirm the information sent to us on our platform on Tuesday 20th March, 2018 about the condition of some Secondary schools within Ikorodu Division’.
The report reads further, ‘We visited United Senior High School and we took time to move around as one of the old students of the school. We found out that the school has no functional library any more. The ICT Center for over 2,000 students have only 3 desktop computers .We found out that United Senior High School is sharing some of its building with Ayangburen Secondary school and this makes the school classrooms to be over crowded with students, with limited desks and chairs’.
The report also included a visit to United Junior High School, ‘and to our dismay, JSS 2 of United Junior High School are currently taking refuge at Methodist Primary school building, due to lack of classrooms for the Pupils. No functional Library and ICT Center too, same with Ayangburen Secondary School’.
It added that, ‘The school have inadequate chairs and tables for students to seat and write. Infact, many students were seen writing exams on the floor, laps while some were seating outside on the ground writing exam’.
More shocking is the report that, a school with over 2,800 student population have just 8 classrooms and 4 toilets.
On the Way forward, the group recommends the following steps to be taken to salvage the worrisome situation;
1.That minimum of 20 desktop systems each should be donated both senior and junior schools
- That both school libraries should be well equipped for the human, and the academic development of the students. This is because, “Readers are Leaders”.
- 3. A call on concerned authorities to relocate Ayangburen Secondary out of United Senior High school and build classrooms for them within Ayangburen primary school compound or look for another permanent site to accommodate the students.
- Ikorodu’s Political leaders and Stakeholders should try to visit all public secondary and primary schools within Ikorodu Division to see things for themselves and see why many students fail exams. i.e WAEC and others.
- 5. Concerned Ikorodu political office holders to give more attention to Schools in their Constituency Projects. 6. Concerned Ikorodu Division sons, daughters, elders, older students, political leaders to help save our educational system in Ikorodu because this is embarrassing.
Meanwhile, Hon SOB Agunbiade, Majority Leader, Lagos State House of Assembly and a distinguished Ikorodu son has visited the Ipakodo Community High School located at the Ikorodu West LCDA and has promised to facilitate government intervention in order to address the infrastructural shortfall in the school.
While the efforts of Hon SOB Agunbiade and the Ikorodu DivisionNotTooYoungToRule initiative is commendable, the Lagos state government must wake up to its responsibility by giving adequate attention to educational development in the state, starting from an increase in the budgetary allocations to education.
