Ekiti monarch, Alumni seek govt intervention on school

By Jethro Ibileke

Alumni of St. Thomas’ Catholic Primary School, Odo Oro-Ekiti, in the Ikole Local Government Area of Ekiti State, have cried to the state government to save the school from total collapse.

This is even as the paramount ruler of the community, the Onise of Odo Oro-Ekiti, Oba Babatunde Jemilehin, Aladesodedero I, also added his voice to the appeal to the state government to renovate and construct the dilapidated classrooms of the school.

The primary school, which was established in 1954, has 240 pupils.

Speaking at the weekend during the handing over of a newly-renovated block of three classrooms by the old students to the school management and the school officials in Odo Oro-Ekiti, the Coordinator of the Old Students Association, Prince Segun Okunoye, said there was a need for the government and other stakeholders in the education sector to save the school from total neglect in the interest of the young pupils.

He explained that the old students decided to pull resources together in the renovation of the block of three classrooms after seeing pictures and videos of pupils learning under the deplorable structures.

He noted that there was a need for people to collaborate with the government in improving the standard of education, especially the basics, adding that the government should be deliberate in attending to the other blocks for pupils to be motivated in learning.

“With the limited resources available to us, we set to work, and the complete renovation of the building we are handing over today was completed in August this year, preparatory to the resumption of academic activities for the new session.

“We, however, regret to say that of the four buildings that need immediate attention, we can only handle one, while the remaining three are in their dilapidated shapes, as we can all see.

“It is therefore on that note that we want to call on the state government, the State Universal Primary Education Board, and other governmental agencies that are stakeholders in the administration of primary school education, to urgently come and assist in renovating the remaining buildings in this school,” Okunoye said.

Also speaking, the paramount ruler, Oba Jemilehin, who lamented the unpleasant experience of the pupils in the deplorable classrooms, especially during the rainy season, noted that solid and conducive infrastructure remained one of the measures of the standard of education in any society.

He commended the old students for the timely gesture of renovating the block of classrooms as the pupils resumed the new academic session, even as he reiterated the need for the state government to act fast in giving the pupils a befitting and conducive learning environment.

According to him, “The buildings in this primary school have been in very dilapidated forms for a long time.” That has been a source of concern to not only the school management but equally to me as the town’s traditional ruler and the generality of the Odo Oro Ekiti indigenes.

“The harrowing experiences the pupils go through to study in such a deplorable condition and the effects on their psychology as they visit other schools with good structures cannot be over-emphasised. Their teachers, too, are not left out in the trauma of teaching pupils drenched whenever it rains.

“It is in the spirit of this understanding that I am making this passionate appeal to the government to come to the aid of our primary schools in Odo Oro Ekiti.”

In her remarks, the head teacher of the school, Mrs. Idowu Adeyemi, commended the old students for the gesture, which she said would go a long way in alleviating the suffering of the pupils and staff.