By Bunmi Ishola
Saint Theresa’s Primary School, Ososami, Oke Ado, Ibadan was established in 1955. The 68-year-old school is the first and only girls-only public primary school for in the south-western part of Nigeria. It is adjacent to Saint Theresa’s College and is only demarcated by a wall. It was one of the schools built by the Catholic Church in Nigeria under the Ibadan Diocese, before it was collected from the church just as many other public schools were collected by the government many years ago. It has nurtured little girls who are now women in high places all over the country and abroad.
This reporter, an alumnus, visited the school some days ago with the purpose of collecting my primary school testimonial. The last time I was there, some years ago, I was told my testimonial had got burnt along with the office of the head teacher where it was kept.
With the enthusiasm of an old student, I entered the school. But what I saw dampened my spirits. The current state of the school is appalling. Most of the buildings are dilapidated while the environment is full of weeds. Some of the trees are old and those burnt aren’t cut down. Most of the classrooms are old and feeble. Some have caved in roofs while some do not have roofs at all. The rest rooms are non-existent and some of the pupils I spoke with said they do go inside the bush behind the uncompleted toilet some distance away from their classrooms to ease themselves.
The library built by State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) with the caption ‘2008 UBE self-help project (Special case) Library’ stands beside a classroom with no amenity to facilitate easy learning for pupils. There are no computers or books for children of primary school age inside the library.
The buildings look their age: old and weak. But for the staff that try to make the place a bit conducive, the whole place would not have been habitable.
Currently, the staff strength is not up to 10 while the pupils are about 30, counting from nursery one to primary six.
As an old student, I chatted with the acting head teacher, Mr Taiwo Akinola. His desire for a change was encouraging. He agreed the school needs a total refurbishment and that it will be nice if help could come from anywhere for the benefit of the pupils and the school as a whole.
“Many of the buildings have collapsed as you can see and this is not making us happy. Many parents have interest in the school and wish to bring in their girls but due to the situation and environment, they withdrew. Some who brought their children are taking them away.
“We have written letters to State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB). Two years ago, they came and captured the building and the surroundings. We are still waiting for their response.”
He added that he is often sad and prays daily to God to bring in help from anywhere for the sake of the pupils.
“I always pray that God should rebuild the school; that He should regenerate this school. When it rains, we use brooms to sweep out the water. You have seen the roofs. There are no books in the library. We shall be happy if the government can please come and see what they can do for this school. The glory of this school is going.
“They are working on neighbouring schools. They should please help us to turn this school into a model school too.
“The school was established by the Catholic Church but they said they cannot render any help to us because the government is now the owner. They only send their Catechist to pray for the students on Thursdays. That’s all. We pray for help from government and even individuals at this juncture,” he concluded.
One of the teachers who also spoke with this reporter, one Mrs Adelowokan, said she was posted to the school about four ago, but she is not happy due to the reduction in population.
“We don’t have toilets. Parents are taking their children away because of the environment. You can see that the students are few. We are begging for people and the government to come to our aid. We want them to help us build toilet and renovate the classrooms maybe this can help us to make parents to bring pupils to our school,” she said.
The enthusiasm with which the few teachers in the school were working was quite encouraging. The pupils looked neat and lively too despite the environment they were in.
The chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Alhaji Nureni Adeniran, when contacted about the situation of the school promised to look into the situation.
He said there are many similar public primary schools on the radar of the board and that work is ongoing on them.
“We work on letters sent to the board on issues like this. I shall look into this case and we shall see how we can put it in our next project,” he said.
